The Medium
by Nenilein
Summary: A whole decade has passed since the mysterious murders of Yaso-Inaba. Only now are all pieces falling back into place. Pulled into reality where Shadows blur the line between existence and illusion of the unconcious, Nanako Dojima has to awaken to powers never meant for her... And discover the truth about a gap in the groupshot of the 7 people who once saved Inaba.
1. Prologue

_A/N:_

_This is a Persona-Plotbunny that just wouldn't leave me alone, no matter what I did. After I had already written 60 pages and shown them to Zero-Point-Nobody, I decided to finally start cleaning it up a bit and uploading it here. My main worry with publishing this was the frequent bias against OCs - this Fic, is going to contain plenty of them. Still, this is not going to shove Canon Characters into the background, rather, I want to pay great attention to creating an environment that feels familiar and yet new and interesting for fans of the games. _

_That said, without any further ado, I'd like you to sit back and enjoy the story now!_

* * *

_I wanted to tell you…_

* * *

When in the heat of battle, we wanted to stand together. We were convinced that if we just stand together, just believe in each other and the power of our bonds, we could take on anyone… and anything.

_ "D-Damn it! Can we really go up against this? …Yukiko!"_

But we did not expect to not be given a chance to even fight. We did not know we would be pinned down before we could even reach the goal… or would be led right into a trap.

I couldn't have seen… any of it coming.

_"Ungh… I…I can't heal anymore!"_

_"Yuki-chan, hang in there! I'll help!"_

_"No, you two, get back!"_

We did not know we would find our own love for each other turned against us.

I did not expect that it would end that way.

For me. And for them.

* * *

_ I wanted to tell you._

_That there were things I didn't understand, back then. So much I wanted to learn from you. So much you never got to tell me._

* * *

We can't foresee the future. The cards only give us hints, ideas. There's no such thing as an unchangeable destiny. And what has been can never be erased… Or so we thought.

_"Senpai, no!"_

_"Guys, get back to Inaba! There's not much time!"_

_"What about you!?"_

_"There ain't no way we're leaving you behind!"_

_"S-Sensei! "_

_"You cannot…"_

_"Just do it!"_

In truth, anything can be destroyed, no matter how firmly it has been built up.

No… 'destroyed' isn't the right word. More like… "lost sight of it". Just because something cannot be broken, it doesn't mean it cannot be lost.

* * *

_ Life is a strange thing. Chances come and have gone already before we ever even noticed them. And everything good is tied to something bad. Or the other way around. We keep striving to fill our lives with good things and aim for the best future, but which way will lead there? Is there really a way to tell?_

_That's why I wanted to tell you… _

* * *

_"Just go!"_

_"You… You'd better come after us!"_

_"I will!"_

People like me… we tend to give promises we can't keep. Either to soothe others, or to soothe ourselves. Or because we simply didn't know better. I wanted to teach you about this. I wish I could have. Can you forgive me?

**_"Senpai!"_**

* * *

_"Time is like a river" someone told me. Every drop of water that flows in it has to find its path. But you will never know where this path will lead. Some things will go lost on the way, others go astray. There is no way to tell where you will end up. Everything's uncertain. Even if you try to change the factors further up in the stream, you will not be able to fully direct it._

_That's why I wanted to tell you…_

_…that I can't chose yet, which "present" is the better one. Which "now" should be preserved. Which journey I want to make reality and which to cast into the shadows._

_And that's why… I am not strong enough to save you yet._

_I wanted to tell you…_

_I am sorry._

* * *

A machine hummed loudly, causing the air in the dimly lit room to grow rich with static quickly. The vibrations caused the liquid in the small plastic beaker of coffee on the desk, surrounded by a disarray of paper, to move in a rhythmic way. It was cheap Starbucks Coffee, nothing fancy, but just what his nerves needed right now. The tense air and the mental exhaustion caused by his task were taking their toll on him as always. He couldn't really remember what the days when he still wasn't in need of large, nightly doses of caffeine were like. In fact, it had become hard for him to even imagine such days. He could only wonder how the person leaning across his shoulder, a man in his early twenties, young enough to still be called a "boy" in his opinion, could go on night after night without those same doses of cheap caffeinated drinks. Then again, knowing the guy, he probably got his share of overdosed energy-boosters during the day already.

His eyes fixed on the screen-like projection, he arranged a few cursors with his fingers, making a last few checks, before he relegated himself to taking a sip from the beaker, sighing loudly as he did.

"Well… That's it. It's gone undetectable."

Undetectable. That meant it was over. Pointless to even try going on. Tonight, they had lost without even fighting. He was trying to drown his frustrations in the coffee, when already he heard the other person's fist hit the wall next to them.

"Damn it. Not another one!" The boy growled at the screen, as if that would change the readings in any way. Naturally it didn't. He just growled louder. "At this rate, it's going to…"

"It probably already has…" The man interrupted, taking a look at the clock. "Strike twelve. That was the last day. Looking at their track record, whatever it had been targeting is gone by now. Not like we had a way to check…"

"Grrr… And we couldn't do a thing to prevent it. I can't believe it…"

"That's just how it is. All we can do now is try to keep our eyes open for them and minimize the damage. The next one is gonna appear soon, so we need to stay on guard…"

There was a lack of response to this from the younger man, so he decided to turn around to check on him. It was hard to tell in the weak, bluish lighting of the room, but it was obvious that the young man felt like yelling or punching something. Probably both. It just so happened that neither of it would solve their problem, so he let it be. The older man was thankful for that, yet he still felt the need to make sure that it would stay that way.

"Calm down," he told his the other. "This is not the first of them that got away. It's a problem, yeah, but there's still a chance to get rid of this thing."

"If we get the right cross-sum together..." was the somewhat disheartened response. "Otherwise there's no way we can take it out for good, especially not now. …Didn't we get anyone?"

The older man shook his head, "I can't get Yukiko to pick up, no matter how many times I call… Naoto would have been here a week ago if she could have made it, but it looks like she's still tied up over in Europe."

A deep sigh, "But… they're the only two of our group who match! And Kirijo just won't send backup…"

"No surprise. After all, this isn't the only place where this is happening."

"Yeah, but the only one where we have such big ones…"

The younger one was walking around the room restlessly at that point, the man just looking across the chair he himself was sitting on, watching him. He understood the boy's feelings, of course, in fact, he felt much of the same, but how would raging to nobody in particular help right now? There was no use in it. What has happened just happened and they wouldn't be able to undo it now, even if they tried. They both knew it, but somehow, despite all the coffee pumping through his veins, the older man still knew how to keep control of his emotions much better than the younger one did. Years of experience, probably. He was used to keeping his frustration of things in check, after all. His younger friend could just never be bothered to acquire this kind of skill.

Finally, after three aimless rounds through the room, the younger man finally changed his path and aimed for the door, picking up a jacket on his way there.

"I sense a few smaller ones close by…" he mumbled, not turning as he opened the door. "I'm gonna go and hunt for a while."

"Don't stay out for too long," the older man said with notable concern in his voice. "You're gonna be a wreck tomorrow if you don't sleep."

Hearing this, the boy stopped in the door, just for a short moment. Then he turned around and looked at the older person. He smirked,

"Don't treat me like a kid, Yosuke. I can take the best of care of myself."

"Yeah. As long as you don't need to take responsibility for anything," the older man grinned.

The smirk was suddenly dropped.

"Oh, shush!"

And with that, the younger person left through the door, closing it behind him. Who stayed was the older man – who, for the record, was still in his twenties himself, even if the dim lights of the room made him look so much older and jaded than he really was. With one last sigh he took one last sip from his tasteless coffee.

"Don't overdo it, Lil' Bro," he mumbled to himself, chuckling...

…Before taking one last look at the screen behind him in worry.

He would watch this screen all night, just hoping that a certain number would not flash on the display.


	2. April 2nd - Morning: Encounter

**April 2nd ****2021****  
**(Aries)

**Friday**

**Morning**

The skirt was too short. It was her first day at her new school, and her skirt was _too short_.

Frantically, she kept counting the rows of checkers up, down and up again, but it was no use; there were only five visible rows covering her legs, two less than the required seven. How did that happen? Oh, she had known buying an used school uniform had been a bad idea, but they hadn't exactly had a choice. Her father's salary had barely been enough to allow her to go to this school in the first place and the lonely, small room she was staying at wasn't exactly cheap either. She should be thankful for what she had. Still, she'd better make sure no teachers would catch her like that, or she'd be in trouble. Pulling down the skirt as far as possible, she contemplated if maybe she couldn't extend it a bit later. If she snuck into the sewing room, it could work. She knew how to handle these machines. For now, however, all she could do was pretend that nothing was wrong and walk on to the large, sophisticated building that was located on top of the hill she was walking up.

Shitsunen High School was one of the finest Schools in the area, or so she had been told, and it showed, if only because the architecture, decidedly inspired by old, European buildings, made it look more like an University than a regular School. It was a lot different from the High School in the town she had lived before. She clasped her hands together before her body. Would she be able to quickly find friends here? She sure hoped so. It was likely too. Tosaki was a large town, a city even, much bigger than where she had lived before. It couldn't be that there would be nobody who'd like her here. However, maybe it was these masses of people that scared her a bit to begin with. She just wasn't used to this, but that, too, would come with time.

Just when she tried to cross the school gates and enter the next part of her new life, a voice called out to her from the side.

"Hey there, Cutie! Got a moment?"

She stopped, though part of her mind told her she shouldn't. 'Cutie'. This didn't bode well. Still, her curiosity won. She ended up turning her head to see who had called her. She found a lean, young man, impossibly older than his early twenties, walk up to her with a confident smile on his face. He had blonde, long hair, tied to a ponytail on one side and wore a dark brown, form fitting coat. His eyes were such an unusual light blue, she wondered if he wasn't wearing colored contacts for a moment, but they seemed too natural for that. Before she knew it, the man was right in front of her.

"Wow, I've never seen you here before. You're new, right? Still, hm… Did we meet?"

She said nothing. If this was what she was quite sure this was, it would probably be for the best to just turn away again and walk on. Still, as if held by a mysterious force, she couldn't help but stay and listen to what the young man had to say. Probably a bad choice, as he kept inspecting her from top to bottom in a fashion, that made her feel very uncomfortable.

"No, seriously, I'm sure I know you from somewhere!" he insisted, nodding to himself. "This cute, perfectly shaped face, the silken, brown hair in ponytails, these perfect legs… It must be fate!"

She could just groan in annoyance. There were a few hundred students passing through these doors every day, yet he claimed he recognized her in particular. Yeah, right. She finally managed to separate her eyes from him and, wordlessly, get back on her way.

"H-Hey, wait! Don't go already!"

She heard steps behind her. She groaned again. The guy was following her, wasn't he? And before she even had finished thinking that, already was he standing before her again, looking to block her way.

"Geez, and I didn't even get started yet. Talk about fire!" the man – whom she was close to declaring the human incarnation of the Pedo-Bear, if only for the hug-beckoning motions he kept making with his arms – declared with a wide grin on his face. "Could you at least give me your number? It's gonna be hard to find you again otherwise."

And then, there was a kick. Not a word. Not even an emotion on her face. Just a quick, hard kick right to where it hurts. She could hear the gasps of a few bypassing onlookers, as the young man's grin twisted into a pained expression at the realization what had just happened and he cringed down until he was basically kneeling before her on the floor, protecting his most precious area, though it was too late already. He looked up.

"_That. Hurts…!_" he mouthed at her in a pleading manner, before rolling up on the floor like a dying cockroach and proceeding to roll around in pain in the dust of the street that way for a bit.

She just scoffed, turned again and left, trying to avoid the glances of the partly amazed, partly horrified on-looking students. It would be for the best if everyone – including her herself – forgot the incident as quickly as possible.

And so, she never took notice of the blue butterfly that followed her as she finally walked through the doors of what would be the school where she would take the final steps of preparation for her adult life.

* * *

If the first impression was really the most important, then the yelling teacher down the hall she was walking probably didn't bode well for the opinion she would be holding of her new school.

"Fujishima, what is the meaning of this frivolous display of disregard of our rules! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"I'm sorry, Miss, it won't happen again, Miss!"

She couldn't help but observe what was going on, so she halted in her tracks and paid a look at the scene. A black-haired girl her age was standing there, bowing before the yelling teacher, hands folded in front of her head, as if to plead for mercy. The girl was wearing the school uniform, however, you could immediately tell what the problem was from the fact alone that bending over like this caused a pair of black shorts to show clearly under the checkered skirt. Those were impossibly more than three rows of checkers showing.

The teacher adjusted her glasses, clearly disgusted at the girl before her, "Hmpf. Non-permitted alterations to the School Uniform. Your school year hasn't started yet, and already you have your first strike. Students like you are truly a dishonor to our school."

"I am sorry, Miss, so deeply, deeply sorry!"

The girl sounded apologetic, but somehow not sincere at all.

"Since you are wearing shorts under this joke, I will let you off mildly this once, but the next time you are spotted like this, you _will_ be sent home to redress! Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, Miss, very clear."

"Go to your homeroom now."

And with this dismissal, the teacher, clearly jotting down some notes about the incident on her notepad, left the scene, leaving only the bowing, black-haired girl and the on-lookers behind. The transfer student was the only one to actively draw closer, though – which led her into a conversation when the black-haired, short-skirted girl suddenly got up and sighed.

"Oh boy… What a start to the new school year," she turned to face the transfer student. "Hey… you are new here, right? I can tell, you're my age but weren't in any of the junior classes last year. Sorry you had to witness that."

"It's alright," The transfer student replied. "Mistakes happen."

And as she said that, she subtly tried to pull down her skirt even further, as if to avoid her own mistakes coming to light. The black-haired girl took no notice and laughed.

"They do, alright! Ah… You know, having had a week of not wearing it and all, I had totally forgotten to get dressed into my school uniform this morning when I came here," the girl admitted, seeming a bit ashamed, causing the transfer student to wonder why she felt the need to tell her that in first place. "A friend told me she had a spare and lent it to me, but… you see what happened. Damn skirt-checker-row regulations…"

"It wasn't your fault," the transfer student said, in response to the altered school uniform. Forgetting to wear the uniform in first place, however, definitely was.

"I know, I know, but I still feel like an idiot," the girl laughed. "By the way, just out of interest, what homeroom are you in? If you don't know yet, I can tell you where the faculty office is. Can't exactly lead you there, though, you know. I'm not hot on getting ripped apart by a few more teachers."

The transfer student shook her head,

"Oh, I already know my homeroom. It's 2-C."

"2-C? Hey, that's same as me! Ms. Marumiya's class!" the black-haired girl seemed enthusiastic. "Hey, how about we go there together? …Oh, I'm Miyuri Fujishima, by the way. Nice to meet ya!"

The transfer student replied to the greeting with a smile on her face. Sure, this came a bit sudden, but she didn't mind. Miyuri seemed nice enough. With a little luck, she had just found her first new friend on this school.

* * *

"Modern Psychology," the teacher sternly led her eyes across the class, peeking above the rim of the pair of glasses she was wearing. "Is the fruit of the accumulation of the knowledge of many important men who dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of the human mind and soul in an attempt to create a better way for humanity to exist."

The teacher – a middle aged, short woman with light brown hair in a ponytail and comparably fair skin – went to the black board, where she proceeded to write down the sino-japanese characters of her name for everyone to see.

"My name is Itako Marumiya and I teach Psychology and Philosophy at this school. However, I am also going to be the homeroom teacher of this class for the following year. Naturally, as the class under my responsibility I expect certain sensibilities from you in interaction with your colleagues. My goal is to equip you all with the social-psychological competencies that will allow you to not only be functional, but positive and constructive members of this society, in which-"

"Get used to this," the new girl heard her seat-neighbor, who just so happened to be Miyuri Fujishima from earlier in the hallways, whisper into her ear. "She's one of those teachers who're just waaaay too much into their subject."

Unfortunately, this didn't go as unnoticed as presumably planned and just a moment later, Miyuri had a ball of paper in her face that had been thrown from the teacher's desk. She flinched painfully twice, once from the impact of the paper, the second time under the glare of Miss Marumiya, who looked very ready to hand out more punishment than the ball of retribution.

"I see, just as last year, Fujishima here does not find it necessary to learn how to effectively contribute to society. Or how to, indeed, contribute to anything at all, I would assume."

"N-No! I am contributing! Very contributing, actually, Miss! I swear!" Miyuri suddenly burst out.

"Is that so?" Miss Marumiya adjusted her glasses a bit. "If that is so, I am sure you wouldn't mind contributing to class by helping me to recap last semester's curriculum with a little pop quiz, correct?"

"Pop-Quiz? Umm…"

Miyuri wasn't given a chance to come up with an excuse. The teacher needed barely two seconds to browse in her notes and find just the kind of passage she had been looking for. Her stern eyes gleamed when she began to ask the question she had decided on and she grinned. It almost seemed like she was getting a kick out of asking her student a question she knew she wouldn't be able to answer correctly,

"Well then, Fujishima. How about you told us the name of the Swiss Psychologist who majorly contributed to the development of modern Psychoanalysis?"

"Right… Psychic… analysis…"

Miyuri's gulping was widely audible. It was painfully obvious she had not the slightest clue what the teacher was talking about. What was less obvious was how the transfer student on the seat next to her was scribbling words on a small snippet of paper hidden behind a barrier of books…

"So, Fujishima?" The gleam in Miss Marumiya's eyes was still shinning. "I am waiting for a name. Or have you decided that names are an irrelevant construct and would rather describe him to us by his achievements and theories?"

"Ehm… Well…"

Sweat pearls dropping off her face, Miyuri was visibly about to give up, when suddenly, she noticed a small piece of paper sliding into her vision, moved by a hand from the table besides her. The transfer student had slipped her the answer.

"C-Carl!" Miyuri burst out. "The guy's name was… '_Carl Gustav Jung'_, wasn't it?"

It was only now that the grin on Miss Marumiya's face vanished. However, the gleam remained. "That is correct Fujishima. I have to compliment you… On your reading skills."

Miyuri sat up straight and proudly at the word 'compliment', only to slump back down again and shrink away at the term 'reading skills'. Somewhere in the rows of students, slight giggling was heard. The transfer student threw a worried look from the side, but tried to otherwise seem unassuming, even though she knew very well that if Marumiya had caught her seat neighbor reading the paper, same was probably true for her writing it. She wondered if this would have repercussions for her as well. Miss Marumiya went on talking,

"In case some of you wonder, the question was a trap. Many people would automatically respond to this question with "Sigmund Freud", as he is the most well-known contributor to Psychoanalysis. However, he was Austrian, not Swiss, like Jung. …Well, well. Seeing how our correct answer just now was not Fujishima's own achievement, I assume asking her to elaborate on the point would be a waste of time, would it not? We should probably rather ask the person who actually did now the answer. So… if you please would?"

Marumiya's eyes were on the girl next to Miyuri. With a short nod, she rose from her seat. She was just the slightest bit nervous, but tried not to show it.

"Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss Psychologist who lived between 1875 and 1961. He worked together and against Sigmund Freund a lot. He founded Analytical Psychology."

"Oh, good, very good…!" Miss Marumiya seemed positively impressed. Adjusting her glasses a bit more, she eyed the girl in interest. "Name one of his most important theories."

"The theory of Human Archetypes," the girl went on, feeling more secure already. "The five big archetypes are the _Self_ or Ego, the thinking part of us, the _Animus_, our male soul, the _Anima_, our female soul, the _Persona_, the 'mask' and the _Shadow_, the suppressed self. There's also a huge number of smaller archetypes, but in the end, they're all parts of what makes up a person all the same."

Holding her glasses with one hand, Marumiya kept looking at the girl, an unspoken word on her lips. That gleam in her eyes seemed to still be there, but it had changed a little, seemed less malevolent. She started smiling.

"Well, well, who would have known? It does seem our transfer student is not only generous but also well versed in our curriculum. Say, you come from… umm… the name was…"

"Yaso-Inaba," the girl stated. "I've been born and raised there."

"And your previous school…?"

"I went to Yasogami High School before transferring here, "she said.

Marumiya was looking through what presumably were the girl's files. Likely, she hadn't even taken a look at them up till now.

"A rural region and a small school… and yet so educated on Analytical Psychology! I am positively surprised! I will definitely remember this during my lectures," the teacher smiled enthusiastically, as she made notes in the class register. "Oh, you can sit now."

The girl did as she was told, as she could hear the students around her talk in their seats.

_"I've never seen anybody enchant Marumiya that quickly."_

_"That's the new girl? Boy, she's pretty."_

_"Yaso-Inaba, huh?... The name sounds familiar."_

_"That's the place from the Fog-Night Murders, I heard about it from my parents."_

_"The Fog-Night Murders? Like, the ones were the victims were hung from antennas in bizarre positions? Ugh, it always creeps me out when I see the pictures in the documentations…"_

_"She comes from that kind of place? Scary…"_

The girl just sat in her seat and silently listened to what was being talked around her. A small sigh escaped her in the end.

_(Fog-Night Murders… So that's what they're calling it around here…) _

She shuddered at the thoughts that came to her. Memories of unhappy news reports, panicking neighbors, her overworked father, strangers at the door and a month long stay in the hospital…

Some things were better left forgotten, she decided, and opened her book in an attempt to take her mind off it.

"Hey."

Her eyes hadn't been at the book for a few seconds when already, her seat neighbor had drawn the girl's attention to herself. There was something strange in her expression, almost like disappointment, but she still grinned at the transfer students.

"Thanks," she whispered. "I owe you one."

The girl didn't understand how exactly Miyuri owed her anything when she didn't manage to successfully pass her the answers, but she decided to just smile back and nod. If Miyuri still found her help useful, that was good.

The lesson continued.

* * *

**Lunchtime**

It was only during lunch that Miyuri showed her full appreciation.

"But seriously, you were pretty amazing back there, what with "Persons" and "Shades" and all that stuff…"

"Personae and Shadows," the girl corrected her new friend. "It's nothing, really. I've just been interested in that stuff ever since I was really small."

"Wow, seriously? Since you were a kid?" Somehow, Miyuri seemed just even more surprised due to that. "Oh man, and there I am… The most complex thing I was into was Featherman R. …Let me guess, you were some kind of child prodigy! Right or right?"

"N-No not really," the girl shook her head. This was getting a bit uncomfortable… Was it really that odd to be interested in that stuff? After all, it wasn't like she was obsessed with it, she just liked knowing it. Nervously, she started playing with her fingers a bit. She didn't really want to talk about this anymore.

Thankfully, this was where Miyuri changed the topic of the conversation. She must have gotten the hint.

"By the way… seeing how you're new, have you already heard about that rumor going 'round?"

She looked up from her desk and shook her head. She hadn't heard of anything like that yet, but rumors were always fun. She gave Miyuri an interested look, as if to beckon her to continue, which she did.

"Well, this is just a thing that's been going around for a while, but you know the shrine down in the older district? You have to go through there to get to the dorms... Anyway, there've been these strange stories about those who draw unlucky fortunes from _Omikuji_ there."

"Strange stories?" she tilted her head a bit. "What kind?"

"Well," Miyuri raised her voice and drew the vowel long, at the same time, however, looked around, as if to check nobody was listening in. Then she whispered in the new girl's ear, "They say… That whoever draws an unlucky fortune at that shrine... will disappear!"

"You mean… they will be kidnapped?" the transfer students asked, shifting in her seat uncomfortably.

"Oh no, not just kidnapped. It's much more than that!" With sparkling eyes, Miyuri, now totally ignoring to whisper, continued to elaborate on her story. "They don't just disappear… They vanish! Entirely! Without any trace or even hint! So much, you can't even tell they disappeared."

"You… can't tell they disappeared? That doesn't make sense," she replied, tilting her head. But Miyuri went on.

"Of course it makes sense! You disappear so thoroughly, people can't even tell you disappeared! See? It's logical!" Miyuri seemed absolutely convinced of her explanation. "It's the curse of the shrine's goddess. Those she deems unworthy, she commits _kamikakushi_ on and takes to the spirit world for execution."

The transfer student wasn't convinced yet, "For drawing a weak fortune? That seems pretty harsh."

This was when a new voice joined in on the conversation.

"Of course it seems harsh when Fuji says it. As always, she forgot the most important part again."

The transfer student's attention was caught. When she turned her head to look up, there was a dark-haired boy standing by her table, grinning down at her and Miyuri. His school uniform was unbuttoned and he wore a sun visor despite being indoors. How in the world he had escaped the dress-code police would have been a mystery to the transfer student, hadn't she noticed the armband pinned to his sleeve by his left shoulder: He was part of the student-paper committee.

Before she could even ask for the boy's name, Miyuri was already scoffing at him,

"Mind your own business, Emoto. I was getting to that!"

"But then you're telling it in the wrong order!" The boy – Emoto seemed to be his name – insisted. "Seriously, Fuji, if you want to spread around stories like that, you can't leave out details! That'll just corrupt the info!"

And before Miyuri could even try to object, Emoto placed himself between her and her new acquaintance, bowed down to the same and told the girl with a deep voice,

"They say that only a certain type of person draws "Worst Luck" at this shrine: People who deserve it. The shrine goddess reads your heart when you draw from the _Omikuji_. The most impure receive 'Worst Luck'. And those are the ones who then disappear."

He spoke slowly and darkly, to strengthen the effect. The girl before him didn't show herself too fazed, though. It looked more like she was thinking. Miyuri chimed in,

"Wait, it has to be 'worst luck'? I thought any bad fortune would do the trick?"

Emoto turned to face her, "Well, yeah, the story changed into a few different versions when people began to spread it, but I traced it back to what I think is the earliest version and, trust me, it definitely says that it has to be 'Worst Luck'."

"…There's a flaw in that story."

Miyuri and Emoto broke off their conversation when that voice rang out. Their transfer student was speaking,

"You said only people who drew 'Worst Luck' disappear," she recounted. "But you also said that people disappear so cleanly, you don't even realize they disappeared. If so, how would you know which fortune they drew at the shrine? Or, more so, how does anyone even know they're gone in first place?"

It was silent for but a moment, as Miyuri and Emoto both stared at her with thoughtful eyes. But then, much too sudden, a chuckle came from Emoto,

"Heh, so you figured out? Not bad, not bad! If more of the girls around here were like you, we'd have a whole lot less dubious rumors going around**,** trust me!" he grinned at her and nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I noticed this myself and did some investigative research. You know, just in case there's a story to get out of it. But, guess what? No matter how much I asked around, I couldn't find a single clue anybody ever actually drew a "Worst Luck" at that shrine. Chances are, the _Omikuji_ there doesn't even have those. That's not uncommon, you know."

Miyuri, however, seemed baffled, "So, it's all just make-belief? But what about the stories about the strange incidents at the shrine? No way there's nothing to it!"

The boy quickly laughed and shook his head before his body, as if to shield himself from Miyuri's disappointment, "Hey, hey, I didn't say that! Why do you think I researched it in first place? The story spread way too quickly for it to be a complete baseless lie." He took a more thoughtful pose. "Almost as if there had been multiple sources…"

"So… There is a curse of the Shrine-Goddess!" Miyuri's eyes shone. "Wow, how scary!"

Emoto rubbed the back of his head, "I didn't say that either, Fuji…"

Hearing that, the shine disappeared from Miyuri's eyes. She puffed her cheeks. "Which is it now? Decide!"

The transfer student just sat by and watched the conversation continue. School Rumors… She was all too familiar to those already. Those had been part of her life ever since she could think. No wonder, given how quickly they spread in the small town she had grown up in. If there was one thing she knew about rumors, though, it was even if they rarely reflected the truth… parts of it were always to find somewhere at their core. It was as Emoto said; a lie wouldn't take roots like this if it weren't a lie that has a reason to exist, right? So, what might the truth behind this rumor be? She couldn't help but feel curious…

The first bell ended not only her train of thoughts, but also the bickering between Emoto and Miyuri. The former of them shot up from his bent down position all too sudden and started jogging on the spot,

"Man, lunchtime's almost over? Damn, I forgot about the committee meeting! Yikes!"

And with that, the dark haired boy got on his way and dashed off – only to suddenly take a 180 degree turn and come back to grin at the transfer student,

"Oh, by the way, you're new, right? Welcome to Shitsunen High! Hope you'll like it!"

Another 180 degree turn and gone he was once more. The girls could only look after him as he dashed out. Finally, Miyuri scoffed.

"Don't pay attention to that guy. That's just what he wants… That show off. Just because he's in the student newspaper committee," she turned towards her new friend and explained with a bored face. "That was Eiji Emoto. He may look harmless but… just do yourself a favor and stay away from him, alright?"

The transfer student just tilted her head.

"He seemed nice," she stated.

"Yeah, he's nice alright… until he starts passing around pictures of you in the dressing rooms all around school," Miyuri loudly groaned, almost as if she wanted it to echo through the whole classroom. "I don't care what everyone says, I just know it was him. Who else would do that… Ah, anyway. Our next class is art. That's in another room."

As soon as she had said that, Miyuri got up from her chair, brushing her – still much too short – skirt a bit and picking up her bag, "You coming?"

When the girl looked up to Miyuri, she noticed that most of their classmates had already left the room. They were probably gonna be the last ones, seeing how she hadn't finished packing her bag yet. She smiled at Miyuri,

"Just go ahead, I'm coming. I just need to finish up packing."

"Ah… but can you find the way on your own? Then again, I guess you found your homeroom on your own too. You're probably fine…Hm…" Miyuri pondered to herself for a moment, before smiling. "Tell you what, I'll wait in front of the room. If it gets too late, I'll just jog on ahead. OK? OK, see ya in a minute!"

When Miyuri proceeded to go on ahead and leave the room, her new friend was already in the process of packing the last book she needed. The rest of the students had already left. The sounds of their chatting and gossiping outside entered the room as an indistinguishable flow of muffled noise. Aside from that, however, there was silence in the room.

She finished packing the bag and shouldered it. One last time she pulled down her still not entirely sufficient skirt a bit once more and prepared to head for the door. It was only then that the muffled flow of noise from outside was interrupted by a sound that came from inside the room. From right behind her.

"Wait."

And she did. Not because the voice had said so, but because she was surprised. There was a voice behind her? Even though she had seen every other student leave the room, there was someone behind her? A feeling of uneasiness was what caused her to stop in her tracks, not the plea itself. She was a bit nervous when she begun to turn around. The idea of being alone with a stranger had always made her nervous, ever since she was little. Still, she lived in the city now. This was something she would have to get used to.

When she had finished turning, she found herself face to face with a boy a little older than her. A boy she was sure she hadn't seen before. He wasn't one of her new classmates. Actually, he didn't even wear the school uniform. So why was it that there was this small sense of familiarity when she looked at him?

He was tall, but not unusually tall, with short-cut, steel-colored hair and eyes of a matching color. What unsettled her about him, though, was the way he was dressed. What he was wearing seemed to come from another time. He was clad in what appeared to be a white Kimono and Hakama. Even the thin Obi holding the Kimono together, which was tied at the side, was white. Only a look at his collar and sleeves revealed that the clothes were red on the inside.

She stared at the boy for a short while. He seemed to be staring right back at her. It was hard to tell. The longer she looked at him, failing to take her eyes off him, the more she started to realize how unfocused his eyes seemed. Something about them seemed so empty and lifeless. Their solid grey and a lack of light shining in them only made it more obvious. And yet, he kept looking at her. She wasn't sure what to do. Finally, she decided to speak,

"Who are you?" she asked and only after she had spoken already, she realized that this might have just been a bit impolite. She hadn't been able to help it. It had just been the first question that came to her.

The boy didn't answer. He just kept his eyes on her, these unfocused eyes, which seemed to be staring through her more than they were looking at her. And then, he walked up to her and took her hand. She didn't move. His hand felt strangely cold, and yet she didn't feel like she wanted to let go. Something in her just did not feel alarmed by him in the slightest. She was worried, yes, but somehow also unusually calm at the same time. Why was this?

Holding the girl's hand gently with one hand, the boy placed his other hand, in which he was holding something, above it and passed the object on to her. When he took his hands away, she saw that what he had given her was a royal blue pen, which looked so new, she was sure it had never been used by anyone before. She looked at it for a bit in confusion.

"Sign," she heard him say his only second word yet, breaking the silence again for one second and making her realize just how strangely quiet it had really been in the room ever since she had turned to face him. She couldn't even hear the noise of the other students outside anymore.

She looked up from the blue pen to look at the boy again and found him suddenly holding a sheet of paper. It looked like a contract of sorts. But what it was for, she couldn't tell for her life. She took a step closer to read it. "_I chooseth this fate of mine own free will._" it read.

"What… is this?" she asked, looking at the boy questioning. He didn't respond. He just kept standing here, unmoving, holding the contract as if to beckon her to sign, like he had asked her to.

There she was, the blue pen in her hand, the contract in front of her, the spaces reading "Last Name" and "First Name" empty. What should she do? Just sign it? She knew it was dangerous to just sign documents without knowing what exactly they were about, yet, there was no fine print. Nothing but that one sentence. She didn't understand what that sentence meant, but it seemed to be all there was to it. And that boy stood there, in front of her, staring down at her, waiting for her to sign. Somehow, it made her feel like she had to sign. Like she owed that boy signing that contract somehow. Somehow… she felt sorry for him. And sad.

Carefully, she approached with the pen in her right hand. She raised it. And she put it to paper.

She signed her last name.

_-"Dojima"-_

She signed her first name.

_-"Nanako"-_

She took the pen off the paper, hoping that she didn't just sell her soul to the devil. Somehow, though, she felt relieved. The boy's expression didn't change. He rolled up the contract and bowed a bit.

"Thank you," he said.

"Thank me for what?" she asked, but there was no response. She kept looking at the boy expecting one. But it never came.

It was Miyuri's voice that finally caused her to look away from him.

"Nanako-saaaaaaaan!" she called inside.

Nanako Dojima flinched. This was too sudden. She turned to look at the door, where she, of course, found a pouting Miyuri Fujishima.

"What's taking you so long?" she complained, even though Nanako had told her to go on ahead. "The second bell just rang! We're gonna be late."

"I…" Nanako wanted to explain herself by pointing at the boy with her. But when she turned her head in his direction again, there was nobody there. He was gone.

How cliché.

And unsettling. Nanako stood there and stared, "Umm…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's a nice classroom," Miyuri sighed. "Probably a lot more modern than whatever you had at your old school in the country."

Nanako immediately turned back at Miyuri and pouted, "Hey, our schools aren't _that_ bad…"

"Yeah, alright, anyway, are you coming now or what?"

Seeing how Miyuri sounded seriously annoyed – Nanako still didn't understand why she hadn't just gone on ahead on her own – she just shook her head and stopped looking at things and people that were no longer there. Had she hallucinated that whole scene just now? …She would have to worry about that later. If the second bell had really ringed already, she had to hurry. Nanako made her way to Miyuri's side and then jogged down the hallways with her.

* * *

_A/N:_

_The first one to spot the Canon Characters in this chapter gets a cookie. Greetings. _


	3. April 2nd - After School: Overheard

**After School**

Of course they had been late. Way to make an impression on your first day. In the end, however, she found that the small mark on her record was the least of her worries. For the entire rest of the day, what had happened wouldn't leave her. The boy with the contract… who had he been? His image wouldn't leave her mind, no matter what. Especially his eyes.

She had a feeling those eyes would follow her into her dreams. It bothered her. More than the behavior of the boy or his looks. More than how he suddenly disappeared. Even more than the contract she had signed. And then there was still this odd feeling of familiarity that had overcome her. She didn't understand at all. Maybe it had all just been a daydream, but still…

"Hey… You've been looking down ever since lunch. What's up?"

This happened when she was about to leave school and go home. Before Nanako knew it, Miyuri was standing by her side again. The girl had been sticking to her all day. Nanako didn't mind her too much, but it also seemed odd to her how fixated Miyuri seemed on staying with her. Did she really look like she needed help that badly? Though, it was much more likely that Miyuri simply wanted to be her friend. It was not like Nanako had any objections to that. Miyuri was nice. But occasionally, Nanako just preferred having a bit of space for herself. Not that she'd have said that out loud. Especially not when the other girl looked like she was worried for her, like right now.

"It's nothing," she responded to Miyuri's question, smiling and shaking her head a bit.

"You sure?" Miyuri didn't seem to buy it. "C'mon, tell me what's up. Ate something bad for lunch? Or… don't you like the school? I know, some of the teachers are a bit weird… Oh, I got it! Emoto bothered you when I didn't look, didn't he? Hmpf, that jerk."

Nanako, however, shook her head.

"It's not the lunch or the school or Emoto-san," she assured. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"But you don't look fine. Hmpf… You're a newcomer! I feel us returning students should make sure you'll feel right at home here as soon as possible. At least that's what I think."

OK, she was getting a bit intrusive now, even if with the best of intentions. Nanako kept a smile, but didn't quite know how to respond. Should she just try to end the topic or should she tell Miyuri what had actually happened? They had only met today, after all. Somehow, this seemed like a bit too little time to already talk about something as odd as this. Still, in the end, Nanako decided to go with this option. Sort of.

"Well…Miyuri-san…" she finally looked the other girl in the eyes. "Is it normal if I saw a boy dressed in Samurai clothing in the classroom earlier?"

"Hm? A guy, dressed like a Samurai? You mean, like, in full armor?" Miyuri seemed interested at least.

"Not really… more like just traditional clothing, you know. And all in white."

"Hmm… a guy in old, white clothing then," Miyuri summed up. She seemed to be pondering but coming to little conclusion. "Odd. I mean, the teachers would freak out over a guy like that. I mean, you saw how Miss Kayumi reacted to my skirt."

Hearing this, Nanako, for a last time, pulled her own skirt down a bit. Of course, that wouldn't do much good, what with Miyuri and her 3-checker-row-wonder walking right beside her. Good thing they were just about to leave school grounds.

"Maybe it was one of the guys from drama club?" the black haired girl suggested. "They might be rehearsing for a play."

Nanako was thinking as she walked a bit slowly. "He made me… sign something."

"Sign?" With wide open eyes, Miyuri looked at her. "Like, an actual contract? You're sure?"

Starting to bite her lip a bit, Nanako kept walking without a response. She had known this would be too odd. Her hands clung to the bag. This whole situation made her nervous. However, Miyuri had an explanation,

"Ah, it were probably just some guys pulling a prank on you. Y'know, cause you're a transfer student an all. There's always gonna be stupid people who feel the need to make fun of others for that."

"Hm… a prank?" Somehow, this didn't seem like a prank to her. The mood just had been much too serious for it. Of course, that was nothing Miyuri could know or understand. So she just patted Nanako on the back and grinned.

"Hey, don't cha worry about it! If anything like that happens again, just come to me!" She winked at Nanako. "I know most of the guys. We'll figure out who does it and pay them back double!"

Miyuri seemed very sincere when she said this, so Nanako did her the favor to smile and nod back slightly. She still didn't think the whole thing had just been a joke of sorts. No way it was just that. But, in that case, what could it have been? Questions over questions piled up in the girl's mind as she and her companion continued their way to the girls' dorms. After a few minutes, they passed by a _torii_ gate. Nanako stopped in her tracks and turned to look through, finding a shrine down the way behind it. A big rock hung with _shide _paper and prayer beads was placed to the shrine's right side, towering the building itself by almost twice its size.

"Is that it?" Nanako carefully asked Miyuri, who had halted beside her. The black haired girl nodded.

"Yeah. That's Haraedo shrine. The one with the cursed _omikuji_."

Giving an understanding look, Nanako turned her attention back to the shrine and rock. For some reason, looking at the construction made her feel strange. A mysterious aura seemed to surround them. But she couldn't tell what kind of aura that might be.

By her side, Miyuri kept swaying a bit, moving her hand by her chin as if she was thinking. Finally, a smile crossed her face and she turned to Nanako. "Hey, Nanako-san. How 'bout you and I draw some fortunes?"

Nanako looked skeptical, "From that _omikuji_…?"

For some reason, a voice in the back of her head seemed to be telling her that drawing a fortune from this _omikuji_ might not be a good idea. Miyuri, however, did not appear to be hearing this same voice.

"Hey, what's with that face? You heard Emoto, didn't you? It's not really cursed," she argued. "Not like anything would actually happen. I thought it might just be fun, drawing some fortunes and all."

"Umm… " Nanako still seemed hesitant, but Miyuri's bright smile and enthusiasm were so overwhelming, she couldn't bring herself to just decline. She nodded. "Alright…"

"Awesome!" Without waiting a second longer, Miyuri grabbed her companion's hand and dragged her along onto the small path to the shrine. The two of them got on their way to the _omikuji_.

A few second later, Yen coins had been inserted and fortunes been drawn. The girls had gotten back on their way, walking down the path to their dorm as they read their fortunes off the snippets of paper.

"Hm, let's see… my fortune is… Ehhh? "Weak Bad Luck" in "Aspirations"? Gimme a break." Miyuri frowned at her sheet, genuinely seeming upset by this. She then took a glimpse over to Nanako. "Hey, what have you got?"

"…Grand Luck," the brown haired girl replied a little hesitantly. "In "Meeting a waiting person'."

" Woooow…'Grand Luck'? Seriously?" the other girl seemed impressed. A slight smirk appeared on her face. "Hm…"Meeting a waiting person", huh? That almost sounds like you were gonna make the big catch soon! Lucky you!"

"U-Umm, no, not really…I don't think that's it…" Nanako backed off a little. Of course she knew why Miyuri had come up with that now, but it came a bit suddenly. This was a topic she didn't think of very often. She felt flustered.

"Ah, don't be humble! Of course it does!" Patting Nanako on the back a bit, Miyuri came dangerously close to the other girl. "You're a pretty girl! I'm surprised you don't have a boyfriend already! …Wait, actually, come to think, _do_ you have a boyfriend?"

Nanako shook her head, "No… I don't…"

This was getting a tad bit uncomfortable now and how close Miyuri pressed to her didn't make it any better. Fortunately, Nanako's continuous shrinking away finally made the other student take the hint. Miyuri pulled back her hand and backed off a little,

"Ah, I see…" It would have been easy to just continue the topic now, regardless of Nanako's reaction. Thankfully, Miyuri showed at least enough sensitivity to not do that. Putting her hands behind her head, she walked beside Nanako and began talking about her own fortune again

"But, really, 'Weak Bad Luck'? What's that even supposed to mean, 'Weak Bad Luck'? That it will be bad but not that bad? Seriously," Miyuri kicked a small pebble in their path out of the way, "Can't anything in life ever give me a straight answer? That'd be nice."

"Straight answers aren't that simple either," Nanako said. "They're sometimes really hard to understand when you're missing the pieces of knowledge you need to do so. That's why people tend to talk around them."

"I don't mind playing detective a little if that means not having to put up with cryptic pseudo-intellectual stuff," Miyuri claimed, closing her eyes and sighing. "Just gimme a few pointers about what I need to figure out and I'll be fine! I'm not dumb, you know…"

The two girls kept talking like that for a while idly. The chat quickly derailed into meaningless, maybe even a bit nonsensical topics. Nanako wasn't too engrossed in those, but at least she seemed to slowly be finding a sort of right "flow" when talking to this other girl, which made her feel relieved. By the time they arrived at the dorm, the two of them had discussed school uniforms, the classes, and the clubs and gotten themselves Takoyaki along the way. Nanako felt much better informed of what was ahead at that new school year now.

"So, you came here for the music classes?" Miyuri asked as they finally entered the dorm.

Nanako nodded,

"My old school didn't have a branch for that and there was only so far I could go with my piano lessons. The band in my school wasn't what I was searching for either. That's why Dad and I decided to have me move here. The school's supposed to have some of the best musical education in the area, after all."

"Huh… Piano's really important to you, isn't it?" Miyuri tilted her head a bit. "Well, good luck with that then. I hear these extracurricular are tough. Even the clubs related to it are supposed to be really picky about who they accept."

"I think I can handle it," Nanako claimed, as if to calm Miyuri down.

The two girls took a turn in the lobby to take the elevator upstairs – the dorm was fairly large – the voices from the television attracted their attention. A group of other girls were sitting before the TV Set armed with snacks and drinks, evidently waiting for a movie of some kind to start. The banner on the screen announced that it was news time.

_"…So, you would say that it was a homicide?"_

A reporter could be heard asking.

_"Of course, we yet lack conclusive evidence but, yes. That is what I am suspecting."_

The person speaking to the announcer was a woman with long, bluish black hair and a surprisingly deep, dark voice. She spoke of the matter with the utmost seriousness.

_"What exactly makes you so certain that Mr. Bluebell didn't just die of old age?"_

_"That would be the timing of his death."_

_"The timing?"_

The footage came from an English interview and had been dubbed over for the Japanese audiences, yet the aura of the black haired lady and her voice still rang through distinctly. It was easy to tell that, despite her apparently fluent English, she was actually of Asian descent.

"Wow… She's beautiful…" Nanako could hear herself say. Miyuri had something else to add, however.

"Ah, it's that Detective Queen again. She's been on the news a lot lately."

She was observing the screen in interest now.

"…Detective Queen?" Nanako asked. Somehow, the rhyme of the words rung familiar with her. The newscast on the TV continued with the 'Detective Queen' speaking.

_"It is too perfect. Bluebell Corps had only just reestablished connections with the Japanese Kirijo Group. There was supposed to be a conference last Wednesday, in fact. Naturally, it wasn't held now. I find it very unlikely for this to be a mere coincidence."_

_"If so, why do you suppose Lucis Bluebell was killed?"_

_"That remains yet to be cleared up by the investigations. However, I expect corruption to have played a part."_

_"Corruption. So it is possible someone was attempting to disrupt the union of the two companies?_

_"The possibility exists, but I cannot make any precise statements at this time. I am working together with the local police force and both, the Bluebell Corps and Kirijo Group to shed more light on the matter. We hope to soon bring conclusive results."_

The interview was cut short here. Apparently it was only pre-existing footage shown for the newscast. It had probably been shown before. Nanako wouldn't have been able to tell. She had been so busy with packing, moving and unpacking as well as all the paperwork connected to it lately, she had been watching a whole lot less TV than she used to.

_"And now, the National News."_

The newscast continued just as Nanako's and Miyuri's elevator arrived. The girls caught one last glimpse of the screen as the boarded.

_"The famous weather newscaster and meteorologist Mariko Kusumi is still considered missing. Kusumi suddenly vanished last November, shortly after announcing she would be taking a hiatus from her occupation as a weather newscaster for reasons of-"_

The elevator door closed and the newscaster's voice disappeared to them. The elevator began moving.

As Miyuri's room wasn't on the same floor as Nanako's the two of them bid each other a good night in the elevator. Nanako took a deep breath when she headed to her room by herself. Finally a bit time by herself. Her relieve didn't last long, when she was met by a bad surprise when she tried to enter her room. The key didn't fit.

"Huh?"

She tried again and again, but no use. The key stayed out the lock, the door remained stuck. Nanako tried shaking it as she was getting both nervous and a bit agitated. She was very close to kicking the door, when she started to hear steps from behind it.

There was a voice.

"Ahhh… Who is it? Just a moment."

Before Nanako could figure what was going on, the door already opened and she found herself faced with a very tall, dirty blonde girl in a pale red bathrobe. There was a towel across her shoulders. It seemed she had just come out of the shower. Behind her, Nanako saw a room – similar to her own room, but _definitely_ not her own room. Beginning to realize her mistake, Nanako blushed a little.

"Huh? Do I know you?" the blonde girl asked, looking confused. "Excuse me, but I don't think I ever saw you here before."

Nanako tried her best to not stutter as she spoke. This was embarrassing enough.

"Ah…No. I was searching for my room," she said, trying to hold eye-contact with the other girl, who positively towered her. "It was supposed to be here… I thought."

"Oh…" Seeing Nanako so flustered, the other girl chuckled. "Heh heh. I see what's wrong. I guess you took the elevator, didn't you?"

Nanako blinked and tilted her head a bit, but she nodded.

The girl returned the nod, "Ah, I thought so. A lot of newcomers make that mistake… The buttons on the elevator are mislabeled, you know."

"Mislabeled?" Nanako asked.

"Yeah, whoever built it apparently assumed this building to have a basement for some reason. Because of that, the numbering of the floors is incorrect," the taller girl explained. "The first floor is labeled with "B", the second floor with "1", the third floor with "2"… and so on."

"So I'm on the wrong floor," Nanako concluded, wondering why Miyuri hadn't warned her of this. Then again, she probably just forgot or assumed she already knew. Maybe a combination of both. Slowly, Nanako was getting a hang of how this other girl worked.

Talking of 'other girls', the blonde was chuckling again. The whole thing seemed to amuse her more than it should.

"Eheh… Excuse me. Anyway, I need to dry my hair. We will probably see each other at school some time," she told Nanako, smiling.

"Umm… yeah. Probably. Thank you," Nanako nodded.

"Good Night then!"

The girl closed the door without letting Nanako say anything else. The two of them hadn't even introduced each other yet. Nanako felt a bit cut off by how suddenly this conversation ended, but it wasn't like she minded too much. Finally knowing where to go, she got on her way to her real room.

* * *

**Evening**

This happened on the stairs by the entrance of a local department store. The silhouettes of two men were visible in the lights of a streetlamp. The shorter, younger man wore a coat and was blonde. The older man wore a suit and had brown hair.

"So? How did it go for you today?" The older man leaned against a fence by the side of the stairs as the younger one sat down and sighed.

"Don't ask. I found one, but she wouldn't even let me talk. Couldn't get any contact data from her either. Ahhh… Dunno what I did wrong…"

"Oh, it was a woman?" the brown haired one started fiddling with an unplugged ear-bud hanging from his shoulder. "Well, then I think I might just know what went wrong."

The blonde sat up and scoffed at his companion, "How rude! Don't you think this a bit hypocritical coming from you?"

Unimpressed, the older man shook his head, "Not anymore. It's called 'Growing up'. You should try that sometime."

"I'm growing up alright. I'm just not turning into a grumpy, old killjoy like you."

"Hey! Who's old here?"

The two men shot each other offended looks, before their eyes softened. They chuckled a bit.

"In any case," The younger man leaned back a bit and closed his eyes. "It was a student from Shitsunen. A second year, I think. She somehow caught my eye and wouldn't you know it, she had the Potential."

"What's the Arcana?" the brown haired one asked.

"It was Justice, I think."

A sigh. "Justice… That means the cross-sum is "eight", just like yours. That's not gonna help us with this one…"

The younger one nodded, "Yeah… A "Priestess" or "Strength" would be best. Then you could stay out and give back-up."

"Actually, I think "Moon" or "Hermit" would be better. After all, you're more skilled with giving support than I am."

The blonde opened his eyes and looked bothered by the implications of this,

"Hey, no relegating me to the backlines! I wanna fight that thing head on!"

Hearing this, the brown haired man turned a bit more hesitant looking,

"Are you sure…?"

"Of course, I'm sure!" The younger man had a determined look on his face. "First this one, then the one that got away last time! They'll pay for what they did! Grrr… I'm gonna maul them like a-"

"We still need strategy, you know," the older man cut in. "Just throwing ourselves at those things wouldn't do it. And you're just much better at analyzing them than I am."

"…Hmpf." The blonde man sat back again and made an expression that was very reminiscent of childish pouting. "You're just trying to keep me in back-up to make yourself look cooler, admit it!"

The older man seemed a bit baffled by the younger's line of logic.

"Why would I do that? It's not like anybody was watching us when we fight. …Ah, never mind. Think what you want. In any case…" he sat down next to the younger one. "I actually wanted to tell, the higher ups kinda shoved a case onto me last minute, so I'll have a trial tomorrow afternoon. It's no biggie, just an assault and attempted robbery, but it'll be enough to keep me busy all day, so… Tomorrow's patrol would be all you. You OK with that? We could also just skip scanning for tomorrow. One day shouldn't do any harm. It's been calm lately…"

"What are you talking about? I can handle it!" the blonde argued. "I'll just put the assistant manager in charge of the store, as I usually do when I got important business to attend to and then that's that! Easy!"

"…By '_important business_', you actually mean '_picking up girls in the entertainment districts_', don't you?"

The brown haired man gave his companion a skeptical look, as said companion averted his eyes from him and started shifting back and forth in place. The older man sighed,

"Remind me, how did you get that job again?"

"…Seniority and public appeal? And because you didn't want it?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right, yes."

"Heh Heh…"

In the light of a street lamp, two men sat in front of a local department store and laughed.


	4. April 3rd: Awakening

She was asleep. And she was oddly aware of that fact. Yet, her conscious was unusually clear. Could this really be just a dream? She heard familiar sounds. And the surface she was sitting on was moving in a familiar fashion.

When she opened her eyes, her suspicions were confirmed. She was on a train. Her gaze was directed at the window, which showed her the scenery passing by outside; a shore-scape before a wide, wide, strangely unmoving ocean. The sky was dark and hung by oddly thick clouds. The atmosphere was strange, dark and yet nostalgic. She turned her head to look in front of her. The train card she was in was blue. Blue seats, blue curtains before the windows, blue walls with golden accents, a dark blue floor... It seemed like it was an old train cart, everything looked elaborately ornate and almost antique. It had a sense of nostalgia to it. How she had gotten into this train cart, she had no idea. And she still felt like she was fast asleep, in midst a dream.

She wasn't alone in this blue, nostalgic train cart. On the bench across from her, only a white table separating them, there was a woman. She was a beautiful lady with golden hair and golden eyes. Her clothing, however, was blue, just as the train cart was. And then, there was someone else. On the same bench as the woman, close to the window, sat a young man with steel-grey hair, staring out at the ocean absentmindedly. Nanako was surprised when she recognized his face.

"You are…!"

It was the same boy she had met in her classroom this day. The boy who had made her sign that contract. Though, now he no longer wore the white, traditional clothing she had seen in him before. Now he was dressed in the same dark blue as the woman besides him. The clothing he wore reminded Nanako of the _Gakuran_-Uniforms worn by the boys on her old school. When she spoke, he didn't react to her voice. He just kept staring out of the window, onto this unnaturally calm ocean, seeming as if his thoughts were far, far away.

It was then, before Nanako could even make another attempt to talk to him, that the woman with the golden hair spoke,

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

Hearing this, Nanako immediately sat up straight and focused on the woman. She had such a calm, serious, almost regal voice, that it immediately evoked respect within the girl when she heard it. Her aura was strong and elegant, and there was a sense of nobility to her.

"It has been a while since we have been able to welcome guests here. For this reason, I must apologize for any eventual inconveniences that might occur. Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Margaret, a servant and resident of this room."

Nanako kept looking at the lady in wonder, occasionally glancing to the boy who would not stop staring outside the window. There were a million questions going through her head. Eventually, she decided to start with the most important one.

"Am I… dreaming?" the girl asked the lady shyly. The presence of this place and this woman was so overwhelming; it made her feel small and unimportant.

The woman's expression remained unchanged. She spoke to Nanako.

"The answer is 'Yes' just as much as it is 'No'," the woman began to give an explanation Nanako didn't understand. "This is a place between dream and reality, mind and matter. A room for those who have forged a contract that binds them to their destiny and their destiny to this room, to nurture the strength of their soul and come closer to the fulfillment of their true potential."

"A contract?" The girl interjected in surprise and her eyes immediately wandered to the young man in the blue Gakuran. As she looked at him, so did the woman – Margaret. Finally, the boy showed some sort of reaction. Slowly, he looked away from the window, sitting straight in his spot on the bench instead. Though his eyes were now turned to Nanako, he was barely focused on her. And his look was as empty as before. Though Nanako and Margaret were both devoting attention to him now, he remained silent.

"…I believe you have met before," Margaret stated, turning her attention back to the girl. She seemed more thoughtful than before now. Nanako nodded and kept looking at the boy. Margaret allowed a small pause, as if she, too, wanted to wait and see if the young man would show a reaction. When he didn't, she continued,

"I must inform you, as our guest, that I am not the true Master of this room. As such, the services I, by myself, can grant you are unfortunately limited. Regardless of this, as well as your own unusual circumstances, I will do what is necessary to provide you with the best services that are possible at this time, in order to support you on your journey."

Nanako continued to be confused, "Journey? What journey?"

"A journey lies ahead of you," the woman explained. "And at its end, a choice awaits you. Once you reached that point, your destination will be decided by your own hand and your own actions. However, in order to reach this point, you must first become aware of your potential and your gift."

"My gift?"

"As for now, you are traveling near unfamiliar waters, on a path that was laid out to you by a destiny that is and is not yours. This makes you unusual, even among our guests, in every sense of the word."

Nanako did not respond to this. She simply had not the slightest of ideas what was going on here. Focusing her attention on the silent boy again, she kept watching him.

"…Your ordeal is about to begin," she could hear Margaret say. "Whether or not you will arrive at your destination will depend on the strength of your will, whether or not you will find a reality you wish for will depend on the strength of your choice. For now, however, I must bid you farewell… until we meet again."

Before Nanako could even fully take in what had just been told to her, she already realized how her eyelids began to grow heavier and the outlines of the people before her and her surroundings began to blur. As her consciousness slowly faded, she gave a last look to the boy sitting by Margaret's side. And then, just a moment before she drifted away, she felt as if she saw his lips move and heard his voice say just one word,

_Nanako…_

* * *

**April 3rd**** 2021****  
**(Aries)

**Saturday**

**Early Morning**

"Nanako-saaaaaan!"

There was knocking on her door when she slowly came too. She lacked orientation and needed a few seconds to become aware of where she was and where the sounds came from. When she gained this orientation, she realized that she was in her room, in the Shitsunen High School's girls' dorm and that the one knocking at the door had the voice of Miyuri Fujishima, the girl she had become acquainted to the day before. The knocking continued.

"Nanako-san, are you awake? I wanted to ask you if you want to go to school together with me!"

Finally, Nanako was aware enough to use her own voice and respond,

"I just woke up, Miyuri-san. Give me a few minutes," she said loudly, so the other girl would hear.

"Ah! So you're coming?" Miyuri sounded delighted. "Great! I'll be waiting for you down at breakfast!" See you there!"

The sound of steps getting more distant announced that Miyuri had left for the dining room. Nanako stayed in bed for a bit, staring at the ceiling. Her memory was blurry, but she could recall having an odd dream… What had that been about?

Whether or not it had a meaning, it had caused her to oversleep a bit, a fact she became aware of when she turned to take a look at the clock. No wonder Miyuri had been up to wake her already. Feeling a bit of panic that she might be late welling up within her, Nanako finally jumped out of bed and began to prepare herself for the day hastily.

* * *

**Lunchtime**

That day, too, Nanako somehow found herself sitting next to Miyuri in every class. It was good to have someone to lead her around everywhere while she still wasn't used to the place, of course. Still, getting to talk to a few other people would have been nice. On the other hand, it wasn't like Nanako even made much of an effort to talk to anyone else. Maybe she had just gotten that used to Miyuri already, or maybe it was just a natural shyness kicking in. She'd always been a bit on the reserved side. And at least Nanako wouldn't feel useless in any way around Miyuri. In the course of the two days they had known each other she already had to pass her answers twice, help her search erasers or pencils she dropped on the floor several times and seen her get into minor troubles with the teachers at least trice. That girl really seemed to have a knack for getting into uncomfortable situations. At least she wasn't wearing the wrong school uniform again today, which was an improvement. She had, however, forgotten her lunch money at home, which was troublesome.

During lunch break, Nanako decided to share her Bento with her companion for this reason. Thankfully, the dorm rooms were equipped with a small kitchen-corner. Eating bought lunch every day would definitely get expensive after a while. The two girls talked for a while, as the lunch box grew more and more empty.

"Umm, by the way…" Miyuri stopped eating for a moment. "I know, it's still ways off, but have you already decided what clubs you're gonna join? Well, aside from the music club. Just curious."

Nanako somehow felt uneasy being asked that. Why was it that the first thought this brought to her mind was that Miyuri might decide to join the same club as her once she had chosen? Still, she answered truthfully.

"Well, I don't really know what clubs there are yet. Aside from playing piano, I don't know what I'd like to try either."

"How about a sports team?" Miyuri suggested. "We have a Jodo team, y'know."

"Jodo… You mean staff-fighting?"

Miyuri nodded, "I thought about joining myself. I mean, of course, I actually find Bojutsu much cooler but you gotta take what you can get, right? …There's an Iaido Team too, but that sport's mostly for show. They really just learn how to fancily draw the sword and take stances from what I've heard."

"I like Iaido, " Nanako said. "I think it's cool how they are under total control of everything when even just drawing the weapon. It looks really amazing."

"O-Oh, really?" Miyuri seemed to be taken by total surprise by that response. However, soon a smile spread on her face. "Hey, why don't you try it then? Iaido, I mean."

"I don't know. I've never really tried sports before," Nanako glanced away.

Miyuri wouldn't let off, "Well, there's a first time for anything! 'Sides, I think you'd really look neat with a sword! "

Nanako wanted to open her mouth and say something about the idea of herself with a wooden sword, practicing Iaido, when loud voices from across the room ended their conversation by taking everyone's attention.

_"Are you kidding me?!"_

Alarmed by the loud shouting, the girls – just like everyone else in the room – turned to look for the source. What they found were two male students, standing by the windows. One of them was Eiji Emoto. The other one was nobody Nanako knew yet, but the glare in his eyes was bone-chillingly cold. It was this latter one, from whom the yelling had come.

"What's going on there?" Miyuri, for once, kept her voice down, seeming a little frightened by the commotion. Nanako said nothing and just listened to how the scene continued.

"Matsushita-senpai, just calm down, alright?" Emoto was holding his hands in front of his body again, as if to ward off the other boy's negativity. "You should take a deep breath, think this through and…"

He didn't get to finish.

"Stop bullshitting me, Emoto! You pull this on me and expect me to be calm?! This isn't funny in the least!" The boy hit the wall next to him and Emoto with so much force, it shook, "You're the editor of the student paper! It's your job to take care of stuff like that, damn it! So don't give me that 'There's nothing I can do' crap!"

Now Emoto himself, despite obviously not being the aggressive one in the conversation, was the one to take a deep breath, as if to calm down, "I already told you, Matsushita-senpai. There's no "Akemi Nishimura" on this school. I can't put articles about missing people that don't exist in the paper! Alright?"

"Don't… exist…?" the other boy – Matsushita – seemed obviously horrified for a moment, before he started wildly shaking his head. "What are you talking about?! Of course Akemi exist! Akemi, Nishimura! She's in the girls' Jodo team! She brought us up to second place in the last tournament! You even wrote a freakin' article about that, for god's sake!"

Emoto just kept his eyes on the other boy, listening, in-taking, but clearly not fully understanding,

"It's true that we placed second in that tournament, but there just was no "Akemi Nishimura" involved. I checked the registers after you asked me the other day. Matsushita…no. Takeichi-senpai. Please, believe me. There never was a girl with this name here."

"T-That's…" Matsushita kept shaking his head. "…That's not true! How can you say that? Emoto! Just the other day, you tried to make her go out with you! How can you dare to say that about her? Akemi… Akemi's…"

Eiji Emoto kept his eyes on the tortured-looking boy, seeming deeply worried and uneasy. He slowly moved his hand, trying to place it on Matsushita's shoulder.

"Takeichi… are you…"

"Don't touch me!" With a sudden movement of his own hand, Takeichi Matsushita slapped Emoto's away. Emoto stared, but said nothing. Matsushita's eyes were red now and it was clear he was barely holding back tears. "What the hell are you doing, Emoto?! Akemi… Akemi's been missing for days and you don't want to do anything? Don't you even care?! She's probably out there… scared… alone… and nobody's coming… And the police won't help me… and you won't either… Akemi… How could you and everyone just forget Akemi?! _Hell_!"

"T-Takeichi…"

"_Just shut up_!"

This was where the conversation stopped. Before Emoto could do anything else, Matsushita had already run away, right through the mass of on-looking students, out of the room.

"Takeichi! Matsushita-senpai, wait!" Emoto called after him, but he was already gone. The look in Emoto's face made it clear that he was considering going after him, but he didn't. It might have had to do with the fact that the first bell had rung just after Matsushita crossed through the door.

As most of the other students sat down again, Miyuri, somewhat to Nanako's surprise, got up from her seat and approached the still-shocked Emoto. Nanako, for no special reason, decided to follow her.

"Hey, Emoto… Are you alright?" Miyuri seemed unusually worried when she approached the boy, who was in the process of sitting down at his desk again.

"Yeah... Just fine. Don't worry about it," Emoto's eyes, though, told a different story. It was clear some things were going through his head.

"You sure…?" There was an unusual softness in Miyuri's voice, which, however, vanished as soon as she started the next sentence. "What was that guy's deal anyway? Something about some… Akemi? Who is that?"

Emoto sighed deeply, "You're asking the wrong guy there. I'm wondering the same thing. …That was Takeichi Matsushita, a senior. He's the captain of our Baseball Team."

"Did something happen to him?" Nanako asked carefully, causing Emoto to make a few gestures as he went on explain.

"I don't know. The other day, he suddenly came to me and begged me for help with finding someone… Some "Akemi Nishimura". Apparently star of the Jodo team."

"Huh? Really?" Miyuri tilted her head a bit. "That's weird. I researched the Jodo team yesterday, but I didn't see anything about her."

"Yeah, and neither has the rest of the school," Emoto went on, leaning back in his seat and seeming exhausted. "Nothing in the registers, nothing when I asked the teachers… not even her alleged classmates knew anything."

Nanako put her fingers to her mouth, puzzled, "Then he just imagined her?"

"That's what it seems like," Miyuri swayed a bit left and right as she seemed thoughtful, "But he seemed so serious about it. So, he like… had hallucinations? Poor guy…"

"I've known him since Grade School. He's always been sort of dissatisfied with his, well… lack of relationships," Emoto gave a short, bitter laugh. "Maybe he dreamt her up as an imaginary girlfriend or something… though…"

"…Though?" Miyuri asked, but Emoto just shook his head in response.

"Never mind. I'm just thinking."

As Emoto fell silent again, obviously still having things on his mind, the girls looked at each other in a confused manner. Neither of them was too sure what to think of the matter. However, the second bell rang out soon after, urging them to return to their seats. The matter of Takeichi Matsushita and his non-existent Akemi Nishimura was moved to the back of their minds over the course of the remaining school day.

* * *

**After School**

Miyuri had a big grin on her face. Nanako was alarmed. Miyuri with a big grin on her face didn't bode well.

"Guess what I got us, Nanako-san!"

Nanako could think of a number of snarky answers to this, but she decided to not be mean and instead went for the clueless approach.

"I don't know. What is it?"

"Not here, not here!" she replied in a way too cheerful manner. "I don't have them here. Wait till we're out of the building, then I'll show you!"

Wondering why she bothered to even tell her here if the thing she got wasn't here, Nanako nodded and continued her way out of school with Miyuri. As soon as they were past the school gates, Miyuri took Nanako's hand and tugged it. Then, she dragged her in the exact opposite direction from where they needed to go, behind a bush. Before Nanako knew it, she was hidden from everyone's eyes within the vegetation, alongside Miyuri.

"Heh Heh…" Miyuri had begun to cram in the bush they were hiding behind, as Nanako could only stand besides and watch. She was very aware where this was going. In fact, she was even pretty sure that she knew exactly what Miyuri was going to show her. Her suspicion turned out to be true, of course, when the other girl turned around to her, smiling brightly as the sun.

"Heeere we go! What do you think?"

In her hands, Miyuri was holding two wooden objects, both of them long, thin and round.

"That's a Bokken," Nanako stated, skeptically eyeing what she had identified as a wooden sword.

"And a Bô!" Miyuri grinned. "Now we can try them out by ourselves and see which club we wanna join! Isn't that cool?"

Nanako had only one thing to say about that, "Where did you get those?"

The fact that Miyuri hid them behind the bushes made it painfully obvious she didn't just buy or legally borrow them. How flustered she looked upon being asked this didn't really help either.

"Umm… I sort of… took them from the sports-resources when nobody was looking," she admitted with shame. "D-Don't worry about it! We'll bring them back once we're done and nobody will ever know they were missing! Doesn't that sound like a plan?"

"Like a horrible plan," Nanako replied with blunt honesty. This was crossing a line for her, as she tried to clearly show by giving Miyuri the most disapproving look she had to offer. "We'll get into trouble. And you know it."

"Hey…c'mon!" Even though Miyuri still had that dumb grin on her face, her voice sounded pleading now. "I really just want to try! Just once! If we don't try, how are we ever gonna know if we'd actually like it?"

"There's try-out trainings," said Nanako, pointing out the obvious flaw in Miyuri's argument.

"But those are so far off! And so overbooked you barely even get to touch the weapons!" Miyuri continued to argue. "We'll train over at the shrine, where nobody will ever know that those aren't ours! C'mon, Nanako-saaaan! Please?"

And now, Miyuri was giving her puppy dog eyes. The kind that looks so poor and helpless, you feel guilty just seeing it, regardless of how innocent you actually are. And Nanako kept looking at her in a disapproving manner. And blinked. And looked and blinked.

And closed her eyes and sighed.

* * *

Nanako could only try to imagine what she would have to tell her father if she came back home next week because of getting suspended for this.

_'Dad, I got caught playing with weapons in a public place with my slightly insane friend'_

That would definitely not fare well with a veteran detective, nope, not in the least. Well, though, she would probably at least score points for original ways of getting into trouble, she supposed.

Thank goodness the area around the shrine, as well as the shrine itself were surprisingly empty today, meaning nobody was watching as she and Miyuri flailed around the wooden weapons, of which they had no actual idea how to use them correctly, in the air like idiots. It was fun, that much Nanako would admit, and she liked standing there, attempting to imitate the Iaido-athletes she had seen on TV before. She went into the most Samurai-like stances she could think of and drew the wooden sword as elegantly as she could. She had a feeling that she was probably doing everything wrong that one could possibly do wrong, but Miyuri clapped in amazement regardless.

"Whoop! Way to go, Nanako-san! You look really cool when you do that!"

"Eheh… Thanks." Despite not being convinced of it herself, Nanako smiled when she put the sword away, walking over to Miyuri. "You're not bad with the Bô yourself! I was surprised."

She wasn't lying about this; despite it being plainly obviously that Miyuri had no actual training in Bôjutsu whatsoever, she had somehow managed to make what amounted to basically random flailing at least look unexpectedly pretty and gracious. In a strange way, Nanako found herself actually impressed. Miyuri blushed a bit.

"Hm? You think so?" she showed a smile again. "Well, what do you think then? You and me, Jodo club?"

"Hm. I'll decide later," Nanako decided, packing the sword away. "When there are try-out trainings."

"Ah?" Miyuri had visibly not expected this answer. She sounded disappointed. "Killjoy! Awww… I guess I'll have no choice but to wait as well, then, huh."

So she _was _only in it so she could be in a club with her. Having figured as much before, Nanako sighed. If Miyuri and she joined the same sports club, that would mean a near constant presence of the other girl for six days every week, wouldn't it? For some reason, this didn't sound all too desirable to Nanako. Maybe it had to do with the prospect of possibly being dragged into actions like this one again and again from now on. Even if she had fun playing with the Bokken, she was rather sure that this wasn't something she wanted to make habit. Taking a look in the direction of the horizon, Nanako turned to Miyuri again.

"It's getting late," she said. "We should return those and head back to the dorm."

Miyuri looked like she wanted to argue for just a moment, but then took a look at the slowly darkening sky herself and nodded

"Ah… Alright," she packed away the Bô carefully, as to not damage it – she had apparently really meant it when she had claimed she would take good care of the weapons – and turned to Nanako once more, "Hey, before we leave…"

"Hm?" Nanako showed that Miyuri had her attention and moved her head a bit. The other girl was smiling.

"Remember how we drew fortunes the other day? How about we do that again?" Miyuri asked. "Just for fun, before we head back? Heh… Think about it. If we draw "Worst Luck" now and the Shrine-Goddess comes to take us, at least we're prepared!"

Teasingly, Miyuri started playing around with the Bô again. Nanako could actually grin at that joke. The Shrine Goddess' curse… Yeah, wooden training weapons from their school were _definitely_ the perfect protection against that. As for Miyuri's offer to draw another fortune, she didn't see any reason to speak against it. With a short nod Nanako signaled that she was OK with it. Miyuri seemed happy to see that. The two girls got on their way to the _Omikuji_, inserted their coins into the offertory box and each drew their fortunes. Nanako needed to turn a bit to get into the right light to read hers.

_'Good Luck – Beginning a Journey'_, it read.

She silently looked at it for a while. 'Beginning a Journey'… Somewhere, in the back of her mind, this rang familiar. Where had she heard this before? After a bit of thinking, she remembered with surprise.

_'A journey lies ahead of you. And at its end, a choice awaits you. Once you reached that point, your destination will be decided by your own hand and your own actions. However, in order to reach this point, you must first become aware of your potential and your gift.'_

Nanako stared at the snippet of paper for a bit. Was this a coincidence? Confused, she turned to look at Miyuri, wondering if maybe she should tell her about this – however, the Miyuri she found when she turned her head was not in the mood she expected her to be.

The black haired girl's smile from earlier was gone now, and Nanako didn't know why, though she had a suspicion when she realized that Miyuri, too, was staring at her fortune, just like Nanako had been a few moments ago. She looked unusually somber. Over a fortune, though? Nanako didn't understand. It was just a snippet of paper. Nothing that could actually harm her, right? Miyuri had said so herself. And still, the other girl was standing there, with that unhappy look on her face, sighing.

"Miyuri-san…?" Nanako asked, just to get Miyuri's attention away from the fortune. The poor girl really was a sorry sight like this.

Miyuri didn't react for a bit. Then, she slowly raised her eyes from the paper, and looked at Nanako, trying to smile. The sun was sinking behind her.

"Nanako-san," she said. "…Thank you."

"Thank me for what?" Nanako asked, not understanding. Miyuri hesitated to respond this. In the end, however, she did.

"You're great…" Miyuri said. "You're really great. You said nothing, up till now… And you even came here with me. Even though I do such stupid things… acting the way I do…"

Nanako didn't respond. This just came too sudden. What had gotten into Miyuri now? This was completely different from how she had acted before.

"…I'm dragging you everywhere, but didn't even ask you once yet if you actually want that," she went on. "You probably don't really want to go everywhere with me … I mean… you probably want to meet as many people as possible. You're new. You want to build up your own identity in this school, don't you? So me clinging to you... That's… that's probably…"

Miyuri looked directly at Nanako with her forced smile, "I've probably been a burden already… right? …I'm sorry."

Finally, Nanako found her voice again. Disconcerted, she spoke to the girl before her,

"Miyuri-san, what's wrong? Why are you saying this now?"

Silently, Miyuri didn't talk anymore, but kept up her dishonest, sad-looking smile for a few moments, leaving Nanako to stand there, helpless regarding how to act now.

And then, much too suddenly, the world changed.

* * *

It was a strange moment, like an invisible flash somewhere around them, a sudden skip in everything, that Nanako yet felt so clearly, it almost made her sick. That kind of sudden change.

And then, the sky was gone. Instead, there was an unsettling, dark, swirling void above them. The sun was nowhere to be seen. Where the bit of light that was obviously still there, as they could still see things around them, came from, they didn't understand. The ground felt cold. Everything seemed colorless, muted, almost grey. The air didn't move and carried a sickening metallic smell and taste.

The entire world around them had suddenly turned cold, motionless and colorless.

What was happening?

Nanako looked around, not understanding what was going on. Was this real, or was she daydreaming? She only realized that she wasn't the only one seeing this when Miyuri besides her left out a deep gasp.

"W-What is this?" she could hear her shriek. "T-The sky… E-Everything! What's going on?"

The girls stepped away until they found themselves standing back to back. The freezing cold of the sickening air only made the chill in their bones worse. They could feel each other shiver. They could hear each other breathing heavily.

"Nanako-san…" Miyuri was whispering now. "You're… you're seeing this too, right? It's not just me."

Nanako nodded.

"We should… go back to the dorm," she suggested, unable to hide her own fear, as Miyuri kept turning her head left and right, looking at everything around them, as if to search an exit of sorts.

"If we get to the dorm… is everything gonna be normal?" Miyuri wondered aloud, her voice shaking. "What happened? Why does everything look like that…?"

By this point, it had become obvious that Miyuri wasn't going to move by herself, as she kept staring around, mesmerized. Nanako finally took the other girl's hand and attempted to lead her away like this, which worked. On shaky legs, but still, Miyuri followed after Nanako, looking even more disoriented than Nanako herself. Somewhere on the way to where the dorm was supposed to be, Miyuri started talking again.

"I… I have a bad feeling," she said. "Nanako-san… Are we going the right direction? I… I feel like something was wrong."

Just then, Nanako had stopped at a crossing, looking at all directions. She agreed with Miyuri: Something was off. It might just have been because of how little orientation she currently had at the moment in general, but Nanako quickly realized that she didn't know this crossing. In fact, the entire area, while seeming familiar, seemed different in layout. There were more turns and side paths than she remembered… many identical houses seemed to appear again and again in the most random places, as if someone had wildly played with the tiles in a building-simulator-game. It was almost like the entire area had turned into a labyrinth.

Nanako took a deep breath. A labyrinth. That sounded crazy. But if it was true…

She didn't get to think about it any further. Miyuri's scream wouldn't allow her to.

"AH!"

Alarmed, Nanako quickly checked which direction Miyuri was looking – and caught a glimpse of her deeply horrified face as she did so – then turned to look into that direction herself. And that moment, her face probably ended up looking as horrified as that of her companion.

There was something coming their direction. But whatever it was, it looked like nothing Nanako had ever seen before. Crawling, clawing to the floor, dragging themselves along it with abnormal speed, changing from shapeless masses of black, slime-like substances into other, equally alien shapes, moving closer with masks for faces, dead, black holes staring where eyes should be.

Monsters. There was no other word for what they saw. Those were monsters. Nanako felt her heart pounding almost painfully hard in her chest. She tried to back off… That's when she suddenly felt a weight by her hand pull her down a bit. It was Miyuri. She had collapsed into her knees.

"W-What…" Miyuri was barely even 'talking', her words were breathed out in short, heavy gasps. "What… is this…? Why…?"

With wide open, emptily staring eyes, the black haired girl limply sat on the floor, making no visible effort to stand back up again. Nanako tugged Miyuri's hand, in an attempt to make her snap out of her apparent paralysis. _'Get up'_, she thought. _'Get up. If you don't, we are going to…!'_

But Miyuri wouldn't get up. She wouldn't even move. Frozen in place, she just stared at what was drawing closer to them. And there Nanako was, holding the other girl's hand and at a complete loss. What should she do? Just let go and run? She couldn't just leave Miyuri behind. But if she didn't both of them would die. Staying here would do neither of them any good. And still…

"I don't want to..." Nanako could suddenly hear the black haired girl mumble with her trembling voice. "I don't want to die… I don't want to… not like this…"

Nanako looked down at Miyuri, as the girl closed her eyes, shook her head and screamed.

"Not as this Miyuri Fujishima!"

That moment, Nanako's eyes became wider. She didn't fully know why, but something in her head had just "clicked". Something in Miyuri's voice and her words… she didn't even really know herself what it was. That moment, she only knew one new thing: Miyuri couldn't die here. No matter how, she couldn't let her die. She had to make her run.

Nanako took all her strength. Grabbing Miyuri's arm with both hands, she pulled the other girl back onto her feet. Nanako put Miyuri's arm across her shoulder and carried her on her back like this. Had Miyuri just been a little taller this would have been nigh impossible. It was already hard as it was. But she had to try. Making Miyuri hang on to her as tightly as she could make her, Nanako began to run.

Down the streets that seemed so familiar and yet so off. Further, further, just where the dorm should be. It should be there, it just should. But it didn't come. No matter how far she ran, it just wouldn't appear down the streets. The same identical buildings kept repeating. The same trees, the same fences… She wasn't going anywhere. It was as if she was the famous hamster in its wheel. The longer she kept running, the clearer it became to Nanako that she couldn't escape. And more and more of the monsters began to gather, draw closer. She ran faster. And faster, and faster. And then, she tripped.

Painfully sliding across the hard, cold ground, Nanako found Miyuri thrown off her back, now lying beside her, barely conscious, whimpering. Nanako herself lifted her body off the ground, in order to go on. That's when she realized that they had been surrounded. To their right, to their left. Behind them and in front of them. The monsters were everywhere. They had nowhere to run. And Miyuri was still lying there. Not moving. Just occasionally sobbing in fear. What could she do? Was there even anything she could do? Nanako was at a loss. As the monsters kept drawing closer, all she knew was that she couldn't think of any way out. But there had to be. There just had to be…

…

She remembered…

She had been there before. In a nightmare. Her lungs hurting, her heart struggling to beat. Her whole body, heavy and tired. And she couldn't go anywhere. And it seemed to all be over. But then, the nightmare had turned into a normal dream. And she had heard voices. Voices, that told her…

"…Hang in there."

Nanako's whole body was shaking. Her legs were heavy and her sides ached. But she got up. First the right leg, then the left leg… she got back onto her feet.

"Miyuri-san… hang in there…"

And Nanako stood. With her hands stretched out wide and her feet firmly grounded, she stood in front of Miyuri, like a wall. Then, she reached to her bag and pulled out the Bokken. Whichever monster would try to eat Miyuri would have to go through her first. She wouldn't let them. Miyuri wouldn't die here. And neither would Nanako herself. Ready to draw the Bokken, Nanako starred right at the approaching monsters. Scared. But ready to stand and face it. That was, when something happened.

In a short, sudden moment, a feeling like a barrier falling overcame Nanako. A shattering sound from within her mind that made her flinch. She had to hold her head for a moment. And then, it was, as if a voice was speaking to her.

_Thou art I._

_And I am Thou._

The voice was a woman's… her own voice? She didn't understand. It was then, that Nanako seemed to have suddenly lost control over her actions. There was a blue light that seemed to be coming from a source she couldn't pinpoint. As the monsters approached further, she stopped trembling. She stared right at them. She felt herself breathing. And then, syllable by syllable she heard herself pronounce a word.

"_Per_…"

It was a word she knew…

"_So_…"

But suddenly, it seemed as if the meaning had been altered…

"_Na_."

Something shattered. Even louder than before. A sudden rush of pure power overcame Nanako, causing her eyes to open wide, and a gasp to escape her mouth. It took away her pain, her fatigue, and even her fear. In that one short moment, Nanako felt … "strong". She felt powerful, as if she could take on anything and anyone with her own two hands. A smirk appeared on her face, as the blue glow grew stronger. There was something behind her. And she was aware of it. She didn't even need to turn to look to know that it was there. Or to know what it was or what it looked like. She just knew. She just understood. It was there. It was part of her. _Her_ power.

The voice rang out again, this time louder.

_"Thou art I_

_And I am Thou._

_From the sea of thy soul, I come._

_I am the one between spirits and mortals_

_The mediator of the land of dead,_

_Shirayama-hime!"_

Behind Nanako, there was a being. A gigantic woman at least twice her own size, probably even more, floating in the air. Her pitch-black hair was decorated with beads and chrysanthemums, braided in the most elaborate ways, while two long, pigtail-like strands extended left and right, freely flowing by the sides of her body. Her eyes appeared to be just two red, shinning rubies. Her skin was white as porcelain. She was glad in a beautiful, deep red silk. Two crystalline formations on her back seemed to be taking the shape of wings, giving her an angelic appearance. An otherworldly aura surrounded that woman.

The rush of power had yet to subside. Nanako was smirking. With the Bokken firmly in her hands, she charged against the monsters.

"AGI!" she commanded the being behind her – her "Persona" – and the angelic woman obeyed. With a mere wink of her hand, one of the monsters before her burst into flames, causing all of the remaining ones to back off alarmed. Nanako took the chance and dashes off to attack the creatures. She slashed away at them with her wooden short, cutting them down one after another, thinning out the rows, as Shirayama-hime continued to ignite them systematically. With every flame spell the Persona cast, Nanako fell a bit of the power rushing through her mind being drained away. As the battle continued, her awareness of her situation gradually returned. But she kept going. She had a means of fighting back, she couldn't give up. Further and further, she cleared out the rows. It seemed as if she was getting close to opening a path she and Miyuri could escape through. Hope welled up within her…

And then, out of nowhere, more monsters appeared. The blood in Nanako's veins felt like it was freezing. Reinforcements.

"N-No…"

She was distracted for just a moment, but that was enough. Taking her off-guard, one of the creatures leapt at her, attacking her. Nanako was hit, thrown to the ground and had no chance for quick recovery. As she fell, the creature immediately took the chance to rush past her, right at the defenseless Miyuri. Nanako watched in shock.

"M-Miyuri-san!" she shouted out, focusing her mind on controlling her Persona. Trying to cast Agi on the creatures, she attempted to drive them off the other girl again, but she took too long to regain concentration. Before she knew it, two more of the creatures were already leaping at her. Instinctively, Nanako brought her Bokken into a guarding stance before her body. But then, what next? She didn't know. If those creatures were just too many… and would just keep coming, with no chance of ever stopping them, not even with her Persona… If they had nowhere to run, what would she do?

Nanako was prepared for an impact that never came. Instead, she heard a boy's voice call out in short distance.

_"Go! Kim-Un-Kamui! "_

The same blue light that had appeared earlier, when Nanako's Persona had been summoned, shone once more. The monsters that had been leaping at her were now frozen in gigantic crystals of ice before they could ever reach her. And then, the ice-crystals shattered, and the enclosed monsters with them. Nothing but a sparkling rain of ice-shards remained. Nanako was stunned. What had happened? She had trouble bringing the events that had just occurred into order in her mind. Only one thing was clear to her: Someone had saved her. This "someone" became visible to her as soon as the rain of ice subsided a bit:

In short distance from her, Nanako could see a young blonde man with sky-blue eyes, wearing a long, brown coat. He would have looked normal enough, hadn't he worn a kind of metal-glove with three long, sharp steel-claws attached to it on his right hand. Above his left hand, something that looked like a card was hovering.

"Grrr… Shadows! Shadows, Shadows, everywhere, Shadows!" Nanako could hear the young man yell in a strange tone. His voice almost broke into a higher pitch. "I've had it with you guys! Bad enough you have to go around messing this whole world up, now you're attacking helpless girls too?! Well, congratulations, you just made me mad!"

The man in the coat stood up straight, turning the hand with the claws a bit, as if to warm it up,

"Just you wait… I'll show you just what happens when you hunt in another bear's territory! _Here I go!_"

Roaring loudly, the young man charged right into the monsters, tearing through them with his claw-glove, skilled and with force. One after another, he tore the creatures to the ground, sometimes even in just one strike.

Nanako was baffled, but not for long, because she didn't have the time to remain so. As soon as the creatures were distracted enough from her, she jumped back onto her feet and began slashing away at them with her Bokken again herself. She was by far less effective than the young man, but it was better than just standing by and watching like a damsel. The young man took notice of her being back in the battle and threw her a grin. In lack of a better response for that, Nanako just nodded. That was the moment the man's smile was suddenly dropped.

"Behind you!" he yelled, causing Nanako to turn around alarmed. One of the monsters was leaping at her.

"_Shield me, Shirayama-hime_!" she shouted instinctively and the Persona heeded her call, immediately casting its fire spell. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to do any good. The monster simply jumped right through the flames, at Nanako. Only in the last second could she block the attack with her Bokken.

"Watch out!"

The young man rushed to her side, and got the monsters away from her, by slashing back at them with his claws as they were busy trying to break Nanako's defense. He moved to her side.

"These Shadows absorb fire!" he told her. "You're not going to kill them with Agi-spells!"

"B-But that's all I have!" Nanako admitted to her ally.

"Then leave these guys to me! You go, focus on the ones with the blue masks!"

"Blue… masks… alright!"

As the blonde focused and summoned forth his own Persona – a gigantic, bear-like being with extensions that resembled jet-engines, Nanako searched out the enemies that fit the description the man had given. When she found them, she immediately sent out Shirayama-hime against them. It worked better than she expected: Her fire magic literally burnt through these opponents, leaving not even ashes behind. Like this, Nanako kept going. However, she couldn't help but notice that her pool of spiritual energy kept being depleted. How much longer would she be able to go on? Regardless of his far superior strength, it seemed to not be much different on the blonde man's end.

"Damn… Where do they keep coming from?! It's like an endless stream!" he growled at the unchangingly numerous masses of enemies. "We can't defeat them all… We gotta retreat!"

Nanako was too distracted to care much for this unsettling observation by her new ally: In far distances, she saw how the creatures had latched onto the still, unconscious, black haired girl, warping around her.

"Miyuri-san!" Nanako exclaimed, running her direction. The young man was shocked to see this.

"No! Come back!"

Nanako didn't listen. She only had one thing on her mind. Saving Miyuri. She had to save her. She had to save her. Miyuri couldn't die here. Miyuri couldn't die here, because… she had to talk to her. She had to talk to her and ask her. What she had meant when she said those things earlier. What she had meant by them. Nanako wanted to know. She just wanted to know what Miyuri had really felt when she had told her all these things, in front of the _omikuji_, by the Haraedo shrine. And that was why, come what may, Miyuri couldn't die here. Not now. Not like this. In a state of panic, Nanako tried to tear through the monsters attacking her classmate. With all her remaining strength, she slashed and ignited what she could. And then, finally, she saw an opening. She could see Miyuri's hand… Miyuri's hand was so close. She reached out to it, tried to grab it, tried to take it and pull her out there…

And then Nanako felt an impact on the back of her head.

Before she could even feel pain, the whole world turned black on her.

* * *

_A/N:_

_I have that bad habit of not updating a story if it doesn't get reviews, but I figure I should break that. I have written too much of this already to just quit uploading now because of something like that. I'll just keep uploading material until I run out and after that, I can still decide if the story is worth continuing or not. _


	5. April 4th - Daytime: Shadows

**April 4th**** 2021****  
**(Aries)

**Sunday**

When Nanako was little, she loved to watch TV.

It wasn't like she was obsessed with it. But still, she could remember those many, many afternoons she spent sitting in front of the television set, watching adventures of heroic people with magic powers, or traveling to faraway lands shown on the screen. It was a momentary flight, away from her small life, in her small house with only her small self to keep her company. Of course, the TV wasn't the only thing that could give her that. There were also books and manga. She could read very soon and she loved reading. But there was something that the TV had given her that her books and manga couldn't: Sound.

As long as she could think, there had always been silence. Way too much of it. Her mother died early and with the woman he had married lost, Nanako's father seemed to end up married to his work instead. Or so Nanako believed for long. He would leave early in the mornings and come home late. Every evening she could spend with her father after all soon had seemed like a gift. So many, many afternoons and evenings, she was alone in that small house, with her small self and her small voice that could barely make any noise. Silent minutes turning into silent hours. But the TV made noise. The TV spoke to her, played music for her, there was laughing and crying and stories. Just some noise in the silence of that small house. Then, when Nanako had grown a bit older and started going to school, something suddenly changed. She didn't remember exactly what had changed. But for a small while, she didn't dislike being at home anymore. The lonely evenings weren't lonely anymore. And the scary silence she had been afraid of had just… gone away. And as the silence in her house had been diminished, Nanako too, became less silent. She remembered laughing and smiling more. Talking more. Maybe crying a bit more too. And still, she was happy that time. She knew that, very well. Even though she didn't know what she had been happy about back then anymore. It lasted for a while, this feeling of happiness and safety. But then, as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared again. And the small house returned to being silent and so did her small self. It was then, that Nanako decided that the TV alone wouldn't be able to take away the scary silence. That her house would always seem empty if the only sound in it came from something that she hadn't made herself.

And that was, when Nanako started playing the piano. She didn't want to be just her small, silent self anymore.

She still remembered the first melody she taught herself too. It was just a short succession of notes. An advertisement jingle, that she had always loved to hear when it came on in the TV. The only one that actually managed to make her sing along every time, without fail.

She could hear that melody right now. Muffled and distant, the cheerful tune she would have recognized anywhere reached her and she felt Nostalgia. Right, this was what the jingle sounded like as it was played inside the store… inside Junes. She used to shop so much there. And she would always sing along. Everytime, 'Everyday's great at your Junes'. The words didn't mean much to her at the time. It was just this short, happy melody she loved so much. That, and the fact that shopping had always been fun. So many people, so much to see. Right…Junes…

…Wait. Junes? But why? Only now, Nanako realized how odd it was to hear the melody like that, in her half-sleep… Right, half-sleep. She had been asleep, hadn't she? But where? When did she fall asleep? For how long? And where did this music come from…?

Sleep drunk, Nanako slowly opened her eyes, in order to solve the mystery.

When her blurry vision started to turn a little clearer, she realized that she was in a small room with normal, white walls, plastered with diverse, rather random things, some of which were quite cute, like Origami figures and small, adorable plush-charms resembling animals that had been attached to the wall with nails, and others which were much less comfortable to look at for her, like posters which motives ranged from "somewhat unpleasant content" to "embarrassingly explicit". Whoever owned this room definitely had a very varied taste in decorations.

She could quickly tell that she was lying on a sofa, but had been equipped with an actual pillow and blanket, which was good. She felt rather comfortable. She quickly realized her head hurt, though, which was less good. She couldn't suppress a groan.

"Oh, you're awake!"

The sudden voice surprised Nanako. She hadn't noticed yet that there was someone here with her, which she could probably chalk up to her still being dizzy, as well as not having really moved her head yet. When she turned it to the right, she found a person sitting right by her side on a black office chair, like he had been watching her all along. There was a relieved, calm smile on his face, as if he was just genuinely happy to see her open her eyes.

Nanako recognized the person. It was the young, blonde man she had met before… Twice, if she thought about it. Once by the gates of her school, where he had tried to make awkward advances on her. The second time…

…Dimly becoming aware again of what had her caused to lose consciousness in first place, Nanako lied there, silently looking at the smiling man, wondering how much of what she had seen had been dream and how much reality. The Junes Jingle kept playing in the background.

"I'm so glad…," the young man continued speaking to her. "When I saw you take this hit, and you wouldn't wake up, I feared for the worst already. It's good to see you open your eyes, Nana-chan."

When the man had finished the sentence, Nanako started blinking at him in confusion. A strange feeling appeared in the back of her mind, like a small voice trying to tell her something.

"Do I…know you…?" she asked puzzled, looking at the young man as closely as she could. The young man reacted a bit flustered, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Heh heh… that would be awesome, but… Nope. Not really." The man laughed. "I checked your Student ID while you were out. To see if there's anyone I'd have to contact and stuff, you know. Just to be sure. That's how I found out your name. You're Nanako Dojima, right? Nana-chan."

Nanako nodded slightly, and then proceeded to move her head around a bit to take a closer look at her surroundings. Now that the blur had completely cleared from her vision, she could tell that this place actually seemed to be an office of some kind. The desk filled with a disarray of piles piling on piles of paper – it was so bad that even the computer seemed to be buried in paper – said that much. In fact, this entire place had never seen a single cleaning session in all the time it has been in use. That much Nanako could tell. But this was really the least of her worries now. She turned her attention back to the young man,

"Where am I…?" she asked. "Is this a Junes store…? The music…"

"Oho, you have a keen ear, Mademoiselle!" he replied, seeming genuinely impressed. A proud smile appeared on his face. "Yep! Junes Main Store, Tosaki Branch! How can I assist you, dear Miss? …You probably have a lot of other questions, right?"

Nanako nodded again, finding the young man's behavior a little bit odd, but being happy to accept the offer. He seemed to be kind, if not a little on the eccentric side, and was genuinely trying to help her. If her memories were correct, he had even saved her life. She felt that she could trust him.

"Umm… first of all…" she tried to sort the questions in her mind, before asking them. "How did I get here? What happened?"

Her head still hurt. Nanako wanted to say more, but she wasn't sure if it would make sense if she tried to recount what she remembered. It was just too bizarre. Holding her hand to her head, she waited a bit, hoping the young man would be able to reply to her. After one pause, he did. There was a much more serious expression on his face.

"The place you ended up wandering into was what we call a 'Sealed Space'. And the entities that attacked you were 'Shadows'."

"…Sealed Space? …Shadows…?" Nanako was hesitant to believe she was actually hearing this. So she really didn't imagine it? That weird 'world' she had seen had been real? And that battle had actually happened?

"I know, you're probably really confused," the young man sounded apologetic about this. "Not many humans know about Shadows, after all. It's probably a lot to take in so suddenly."

"…I fought them…" Nanako remembered. "With that thing that came out of me. My…"

The blonde nodded.

"Your 'Persona', right," he said. "That power was the reason you could move freely in that space. But also the reason the Shadows could prey on you in the first place, I'm afraid."

"Prey?" Nanako asked. She knew what it meant, but she wanted to know more about it. The man went on to explain,

"Shadows often turn violent against humans, either because they feel disturbed or threatened by them in some way, or due to the urging of a stronger Shadow. Stronger Shadows often prey on humans for many different reasons, especially on their minds. When stronger Shadows get all the weaker Shadows to attack someone …well, you saw what happened."

Nanako could "relate" to these "Shadows" in terms of "feeling disturbed" right now at the very least,

"So, they wanted to eat my mind…?"

"That's what we're still trying to find out," the young man responded. "Actually, Shadows aren't even supposed to appear in this world. It's only possible because of the Sealed Spaces."

"Sealed Space… You mean when the sky disappeared and the world turned grey?"

The blonde nodded,

"Sealed Spaces are when, just for a short moment, a place is shut off by a strong force and removed from the normal flow of time. They're usually not very big, just a few hundred meters of radius, but they're very hard to get out of again, because their insides change into mazes while they are in that state and since time doesn't flow normally inside, everyone who is trapped in there can't return to the normal world and the normal flow of time until they find a way out."

He paused a bit, sighing and looking a bit annoyed. It was clearly hard for him to explain this all in a manner that would still make sense to Nanako.

"If someone wanders into one of them, it's hard to help them. Because these spaces only exist for a very short time to the normal world, it's very hard to enter them on purpose. So, if you get lost in there, there is not much that anyone can do to help you to get out. …Of course, that doesn't go for everyone. Normal people are frozen in time in a Sealed Space like everything else and don't even notice it occurs. It's not dangerous for them. The only ones really in danger are those with the special Potential."

"Special Potential… You mean, that thing that came from me?" Nanako guessed. "This… 'Persona'?"

"Yes, exactly that," the young man nodded. "It's an amazing power of the soul, which some people who are more aware of themselves than others have. It's the only way to really fight against Shadows. But… if you have it, that also means you will move freely in a Sealed Space, like the Shadows do, which means that they can prey on you."

Nanako listened closely; trying to take it all in as well as she could,

"And… you have the same power, right? I saw you fight."

"Yep!" the man smiled proudly. "I've had it for a long time, as long as I can think, actually. I was practically born with it!"

"So, that's why you could come and help me. Still, there's something I don't really understand," Nanako finally began siting up, so she could look her dialogue partner directly in the eyes. "If it's so hard to get into this kind of place, how could you go in and help me? Wouldn't it have been too late by the time you found me?"

In that moment, the young man started to grin.

"I sniffed it out," he stated.

Nanako only looked at him as if she was waiting for a punch line. It never came.

"E-Eh…?"

"I smelt it in advance!" the man repeated. "Where the Shadows were going to appear! I usually do that."

"Shadows… smell…?" Nanako could only stare and blink. This was something she officially couldn't follow any longer. Had she missed a metaphor for something here?

Just then, a voice she hadn't heard before joined the group.

"And you were doing so well with not confusing her, Teddie!"

Nanako, as well as her mysterious blonde host, turned their attention towards the door to the room, where now another man was standing and watching them with a smirk. Neither of them had noticed when he entered. Nanako felt tempted to dub him "Ninja-man" just for that, but she could quickly drop this naming again when she learned his real name just a moment later.

"Yosuke, when did you get here?" the blonde man asked surprised.

The man called "Yosuke" gave a wink and stepped inside, "Just a few minutes ago. I would have been here earlier, but the Detectives had some questions about the paperwork. Sorry for the wait."

The younger man shook his head a bit, "I don't mind. I was fine explaining everything to her myself."

"Yes, maybe you were fine with just yourself and her," the other man replied. "I was actually more worried that _she_ wouldn't be 'fine' with just _you_ around. That's why I hurried up."

Obviously not liking the way his older acquaintance had worded this, the younger man looked offended,

"What are you suggesting?! I saved this poor, little girl all by myself when she was unconscious and defenseless, just so you know!"

The older man nodded, "Yes. That's precisely _why_ I was worried. "

"_Yosuke_!"

"Heh, calm down, Ted. I am just kidding."

Hearing this conversation, Nanako pressed herself a bit against the sofa she was sitting on. She was rather concerned now regarding what kind of people she had ended up in the same room with here. Maybe it would be better for her if she wasn't here?

Just then, one of the men – the older one – turned his attention back to Nanako. He tried to make a more serious expression,

"Seriously, though, are you alright? Ted told me about what happened. You must have taken a rough beating…"

"I…I'm fine, thank you, " Nanako replied, before questioningly turning her gaze towards the younger man. "…'Ted'?"

She should probably have asked this as a full question, but for some reason, she felt the need to say the name first, just to hear it in her own voice. And once she had done that, all meaning in turning it into a legitimate sentence was already gone. Thankfully, the men understood anyway.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. We didn't introduce ourselves yet," the older man, realized, but before he could begin to correct this mistakes, the younger one beat him to the punch.

"I'm Kichiro Kumada, but my friends call me "Teddie"!" the blonde happily presented himself, even standing up from his chair. Then, he turned to gesture at the other man, "The ancient stick-in-the-mud over there is my older brother, Yosuke."

"Yosuke" was not very amused by this introduction.

"Wha- Good thing your birthday's coming up, I'm gonna buy you a dictionary, so you can look up what 'Stick in the mud' actually means!" Having said that, he shook his head a bit and sighed, before turning to Nanako. "Anyway, my name is Yosuke Hanamura. I work as a Public Prosecutor in this city. And, yeah, as this guy just now said, he and I are –regrettably – brothers."

"And I'm the manager of this beautiful store you're in right now!" the man who had introduced himself with the nickname "Teddie" blurted out when he realized he hadn't given his own occupation yet. "I'm the much better looking, charming younger brother, you mind!"

"Is that really something you think she wants or needs to know when she's just been, you know, deeply traumatized by a Shadow assault?" Yosuke Hanamura sighed.

Kichiro "Teddie" Kumada turned towards his brother, "I don't think your job was all that important to know for her either! Yosuke, Yosuke, always trying to show off, will you ever change?"

"I have a better question: Will you ever stop being a hypocrite?"

Nanako just sat by and watched. Was this the fabled 'sibling-love'-thing you hear of everywhere, or did those two just enjoy talking down onto each other like they were constantly stuck in a comedy routine? Whichever it was, it was mesmerizing to watch. Still, she decided to break up the scene before it could derail any further. There were still questions she needed answered.

"My name is Nanako Dojima," she introduced herself. "I am a second year at Shitsunen High School. I've… not been living here for long yet."

"Oh! Now, that explains why I never saw you before," Kumada seemed rather happy that this mystery was solved, as Hanamura seemed to thinking about what Nanako had said.

"So, you're a transfer student? Wait… Nanako Dojima? Dojima…" and then, all too sudden, Hanamura's eyes turned wide, and his mouth opened in surprise. "Wait. You wouldn't happen to be… from Yasoinaba? Is your father's name "Ryotaro"?"

Nanako showed just as much surprise as the man before her now. She nodded,

"Um, yes! Ryotaro Dojima. He's working as a Detective for the Police Force there."

"Woooow… So you're 'that' Nanako! Heh, that's what I call a coincidence!" Hanamura laughed and winked at Nanako, whose confusion was at a height compared to ever since she had first woken up here. Thankfully, Hanamura went on to explain. "You can't know that, but Teddie and I, we come from Inaba as well. We only moved here two years ago ourselves."

"Ah! I knew I recognized you from somewhere!" Kumada, again, looked very glad about the revelation. He smiled. "Nana-chan, did you shop at Junes a lot in Inaba? I used to work there as a mascot before I got promoted. I bet'cha that's how I know you!"

"The mascot? That was you?" Nanako tilted her head a little. She dimly recalled that the Inaba Junes branch really had someone run around in a costume and do promotions for a while, but that was only for a few years. "Umm… Actually I don't remember too well, but… yes, that could be."

"So, you are Detective Ryotaro Dojima's daughter…" With thoughtful eyes, Hanamura took the word again. "I wouldn't have guessed. We've been living in Inaba for so long and we never noticed there was anyone else."

"Detecting that power's not that easy, Yosuke," Kumada remarked. "I need to focus specifically on that so I can tell. It's no wonder if we missed that someone actually had it."

"Hm… yeah…" Hanamura sighed. "Then I guess just finding and warning any potential Persona User around so the Shadows can't take them by surprise, really is out as a way to tackle this. Would have been too easy…"

Kumada sat down on his chair again.

"At least Nana-chan is safe. Hadn't I noticed the presence by the shrine in time, we would have lost her, too!"

"The first other Persona we managed to find in time," Hanamura agreed with a nod. "That brings the number of active, known Persona Users in this city up to… three."

"Four," Nanako interjected.

With that, Hanamura and Kumada sopped talking to each other. They turned their attention to Nanako.

"Hm?" Hanamura seemed puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Kumada-san told me about it. Only people with that special power can move in that weird space, right?" Nanako explained. "That should mean, Miyuri-san has that power too. She was with me after all."

However, Kumada was not any less confused than his brother.

"Mi…yuri?" he asked carefully. His tone made it clear that he had absolutely no idea who Nanako could be talking about. Which most likely meant…

This wasn't good. Slowly, Nanako was starting to feel uneasy. She could feel her breathing turn more nervous and her heartbeat increasing.

"Miyuri… Fujishima. She's my classmate. She was with me. When these monsters… these "Shadows" attacked." Nanako gulped when she saw that the looks of the men didn't turn any less bewildered. Only hesitantly, she dared to ask the question that had to be asked. "…Didn't she… come back with us…?"

Yosuke Hanamura turned greatly alarmed as he heard Nanako speak. With a sense of urgency, he turned to his brother,

"Teddie…!"

The blonde man closed his eyes, not responding immediately. He seemed at a loss, nervous and scared. Finally, though, he hesitantly spoke.

"I-It's true that I felt like there was another presence in there when I found Nana-chan," he admitted with his voice subdued. "But I've made mistakes when scanning by myself before… I didn't see anyone else there! I thought I had just imagined it…."

"Then… Miyuri's still in there?" Nanako was horrified and it showed in her voice.

Kumada fell silent. Looking at Nanako for a while, he bit his lips, the words that he was searching for, clearly not coming to him. It was Hanamura, who finally took the burden of revealing the facts off him. He shook his head.

"No… not anymore," he said. "To our reality, Sealed Spaces only exist for a few moments. The one you and your friend wandered into is long gone. And if the Shadows got ahold of your friend… Then she is too."

Nanako stared blankly. Was this real? Had she really just heard this? It just couldn't be true. Because if it was, then that would mean, that Miyuri… cheerful, active, cheeky Miyuri, who she had spent practically the entire past two days with…

Pleadingly, Nanako stared at the blonde man before her. She hoped for him to talk, to say something, maybe that she really wasn't the only girl he brought back, that there actually was another one he just forgot to mention, anything like that. But she hoped in vain. Kumada averted her gaze, looking ashamed. Slowly he let his arms sink down, left and right from his chair. He looked at the floor and sighed,

"…When Nana-chan lost consciousness, all I thought about was getting her to safety as quickly as possible. I brought only her back. I'm sorry…"

"No…way…" blankly, Nanako, too, started to stare at the floor. "Miyuri-san is… d…dead…?"

A heavy silence covered the room, numbing out even the music in the background to the point Nanako didn't hear it anymore. Hanamura's and Kumada's heads were both lowered. Nanako's hopeless gaze met nothing but air.

"I'm so sorry," she heard Kumada mumble again. "If I'd paid more attention, this wouldn't have happened. But… if she was really still in there when we left… there's nothing-"

"…She might not be lost yet."

Kumada had been interrupted by Hanamura, who was standing in a corner of the room, massaging his forehead with his fingers. He seemed to be thinking.

"Yosuke…?" his brother raised his head a bit, looking at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"We haven't yet figured out what the Shadows actually do with the things and people that get lost in a Sealed Space," Hanamura explained. "But sometimes when a person goes missing, it seems like it takes a few days before they are 'severed'."

"Severed…?" Nanako asked, not liking the sound of the term.

Kumada went on to give a description,

"'Severed' is what our Higher Ups call it when something is apparently completely taken out of reality. Like a person, or an item or event or even just a concept of something. That means that all traces or memories that it ever existed disappear, too."

"We need special archives to keep track of things that go missing that way," Hanamura added. "And even that only works with luck and limits."

"The memories… disappear?" Somehow this rang a bell in the back of Nanako's mind. "So, if Miyuri-san was 'severed'... nobody would even realize she ever existed in the first place?"

"But this hasn't happened yet," Hanamura explained. "You quite obviously still remember her. And then, there's also the fact that sometimes, the same Sealed Space appears in the same spot several days after another…"

Giving a nod, Kumada agreed, "Yeah. We figured out that this happens sometimes when a "big" Shadow creates a Sealed Space. They keep coming back in the same spot for a few days then-" He stopped right there, having come to an realization. "-Wait. So, if we just assume that there's a connection between these Sealed Spaces that keep coming back for a while and the delay between the disappearance and the 'severing' of some of the victims... Yosuke, you don't think…?"

"…That yesterday's Sealed Space might have been one of the big Shadows that escaped from us?" Hanamura completed the sentence. "You bet I think that. It might even be the one that got away two weeks ago!"

"So if we went into the same Sealed Space again… then we might find that girl again!"

Nanako's heart jumped at those words by Kumada. For the first time, she got up from the sofa,

"Is that true? We can really still save her?"

"It's usually very hard to connect a disappearance to a Sealed Space until it's too late, because we don't usually have eye-witnesses," was the explanation Hanamura began. "In other words, we have never tried before. But if our theory is true and the Sealed Spaces the larger Shadows hide in keep reappearing sometimes because a victim inside hasn't been 'severed' yet, then it should technically be possible to still find her."

"Then we need to start scanning right away!" Kumada, too, jumped up from his seat. "The Sealed Space they wandered into appeared yesterday. If it's really one of those, it might reappear any minute now!"

"Right. Let's just hope we'll be able to even detect it. After all, if it's one of the ones we think it is, its detection-deadline has passed already. Remember, it can conceal itself now."

"It was hard, but I managed to find it in time yesterday, probably because it was gathering so many smaller Shadows! If it does that again, I'm sure I can pinpoint when it's gonna appear today too!" Not losing any more time, Kumada dashed towards the door to leave the room. "I'll go and boot _Lucia's Chapel_ up!"

Full of newfound enthusiasm, Kumada stormed out of the office, leaving Nanako and Hanamura behind. With her best efforts to keep track of everything the men had said, Nanako was now still trying to piece together all he information she had gotten.

Hanamura turned to her and sighed, "I'm sorry you got dragged into this all. This must all be really hard to understand all of a sudden."

Nanako didn't reply right away. Instead, she kept thinking over the situation, finally recounting it.

"I think I understand…The place I was, was a 'Sealed Space'. People who can move in a 'Sealed Space' are attacked by 'Shadows'. And if the 'Shadows' kill them there, they disappear for good…"

With a nod, Hanamura confirmed this, "Yeah, that's about it. Of course, there's a lot we still don't know."

Thinking hard, Nanako tried to make sense of the rest of what she had heard as well,

"And this 'scanning' thing that Kumada-san went to do…"

"You'll see what that means once we go downstairs to join him," he told her, smiling. "It's easier to just show you some things than to try explaining everything."

Nanako accepted this response. Still, however, there were some more things she wanted to know.

"Umm… Hanamura-san?"

"Yes?" he replied. "What is it?"

"Do you have that 'Special Power' too? You and Kumada-san… who are you two anyway?"

Hanamura looked as if he had expected this question to come up. Putting his hand on Nanako's shoulder,

"That's a little bit much to explain right now. We'll get to it later, I swear. But, yes, you're right. I can use a Persona as well. I've had that power ever since I was your age."

Ever since he was a High School student? That would have been about a decade ago. Nanako was surprised. Had things like this been going on in the world around her for that long?

"Are there many of us?" she asked and he nodded at her.

"More than we can tell yet. You and your friend prove it." That said, Hanamura turned towards the door and headed for it. "Alright. Let's go down and join up with Teddie. Are you coming?"

Nanako was still trying to process everything. If she understood one thing, though, then it was that these people were probably the only ones who could still help her find and save Miyuri now. So, even if not everything made sense yet, she had to just trust them. Ignoring that she still felt slightly dizzy, Nanako followed after Yosuke Hanamura as he left the room, through the store, down, until they boarded the elevators and used a special key Hanamura had on him to access the basement levels…

* * *

"Wow…"

Nanako could barely hide her amazement at the kind of place they entered when Hanamura led her to the lowest basement of the store. Various machines and devices she had never seen before stood lined up, alongside shelves filled with folders and other means of file storage. LED lamps were shining in every corner and large computers seemed to be doing difficult operations (Or perhaps somebody had just forgotten to turn them off and they were running hot now because of that.) The entire room seemed futuristic, like something out of a Sci-Fi Anime. It was nothing she had expected in a place like this.

Only one spot seemed slightly out of place… A small shelf in the corner of the room, stacked with charms and framed photographs, showing a group of teenagers in what Nanako recognized as the uniforms of her old school. The biggest of the photographs had been hung above the shelf. It showed seven young people, standing together and smiling. Nanako believed to recognize a younger Hanamura and younger Kumada standing close to each other on the left side of the picture, together with a short boy with a blue hat. They looked very happy…

"Pretty cool, huh?" Hanamura's voice drew Nanako's attention away from the photograph on the wall. "Most of the stuff is a headache to use, though. To be honest, we rarely ever touch a lot of it. Oh…Also, you're the first person aside from Teddie and me to be let in here in a long while, in case you wonder."

Across from the entrance, there was the most noticeable device in the room; a large, white machine with green lights shining on the top and bottom and with glass walls that allowed you to see what was inside. Its main part resembled a pod. Inside that pod, Nanako could see Kumada, his wrists and head attached to the machine with metal rings and cables. He had a concentrated, calm expression on his face and his eyes were closed.

Nanako stepped closer to the machine, looking at the young man enclosed inside in awe.

"Don't distract him," Hanamura warned, keeping his voice down. "He might not get any results if we don't let him focus."

"What is he doing?" Nanako asked interested, turning to Hanamura again.

Hanamura spoke quietly, "Scanning the city for Shadow presences. With a little luck, we'll find out if and when yesterday's Sealed Space will reappear."

"He can do that?"

"He has a natural gift for sensing Shadows, actually. Still, that wouldn't be enough to scan the whole city thoroughly. That's why we're using this device – Lucia's Chapel – for that.

Just when Hanamura had finished saying that, the pod in front of the two of them snapped open with a distinct sound. The rings around his head and wrists coming undone, Kumada took a deep breath and proceeded to step out of the pod, opening his eyes.

"We've got a bingo," he said, seeming a bit dizzy. "There's a lot of Shadows still lurking at the shrine. The same types as yesterday, I think, but I'm not sure... If I'm not wrong, then a Sealed Space is gonna appear around 6:18pm."

"So we still have more than 3 hours till then," Hanamura took a look at his wristwatch. "That's good. Gives us time to prepare. Great work, Ted."

"I still wonder if your theory is true, though," Kumada sounded worried. "I tried to scan for this 'Miyuri', but had no luck. Though, it could be the Shadows cover up her scent."

With a slight shake of his head, Hanamura signaled his younger brother not to worry about it too much, "You did what you could. Now all we can do is analyze your scan-data, prepare the operation and hope that our guesses are true. And if they are, then that's a major step forward for us in a lot of ways."

"You are going to search Miyuri-san, right?" Nanako asked, trying to link herself into the conversation of the two young men. Hanamura smiled and nodded.

"That's the plan right now. Though..." he turned thoughtful, lowering his head a bit. "If our theory is true, then it could be that we'll end up running into one of the big ones again. We're not prepared for that."

"One of us will have to stay outside for mission control," Kumada agreed. "Yosuke, would you-"

Hanamura, however, immediately shook his head, "I'm sorry Ted, but I think we should leave you in charge of Lucia's Chapel for this operation. I'll go inside the Sealed Space and conduct the exploration."

Kumada was visibly not happy to hear that, "But I already scanned the city! You take the Chapel, I wanna go and save that girl! It's because of me she's stuck in there in the first place…"

"Teddie, if this is really one of the large Shadows we have been after and then we'll need as tight support as possible! You know that my Persona can't actually analyze Shadows or create escape routes. If you go in there all by yourself and run into something that you're no match for, I won't be able to help you or get you out. We need you in support!"

"Grrr…" Kumada seemed like he wanted to object, but couldn't come up with any arguments. He sighed. "That's no fair… Why did I have to be the one with that special talent…?"

Stretching a little bit, Kumada was apparently trying to get rid of his frustration by moving. He still looked rather uneasy.

"But, Yosuke… Are you really going to go in there all by yourself?" he asked with a worried tone. "You know that these big Shadows can't be defeated by just one person! Even if the conditions are right."

Hanamura lowered his head a bit, "I know that, but… it's not like we have a choice. If anything happens, you'll just have to pull me out. You and I are the only ones here right now, after all. It's all up to us."

"Can't I help?"

This question came as a surprise to Hanamura and Kumada. Both of them turned to the owner of the voice that had asked it. Nanako looked at them with determined eyes.

"Y-You want to go in there?" Hanamura asked her. It was obvious that the thought of this did not make him feel any less unsettled. "I don't think that this is a good idea. Excuse me, but you just have no idea what we're up against."

"Nana-chan, Yosuke is right, you only just recovered," Kumada agreed. "You should rest for a bit."

"I'm fine," Nanako claimed, standing straight before the two men, both of which were of course much taller than her. "Miyuri-san is the one we need to be worried about. She's all alone and probably scared. If there's anything I can do to help her, I want to try!"

"I don't know…" Hanamura still didn't seem convinced. "I mean, we've wanted to recruit new members for a while now, but... This is a little too much to tackle for a newbie. You only just got your Persona. If anything happened to you in there…"

"But… on the other hand…"

Something seemed to be on Kumada's mind. Hanamura, not understanding why it looked like the other man was having a change of heart now, looked at him, "What 'on the other hand'? You're not saying I should take her along, are you?"

"Nana-chan is the only one of us who actually knows this 'Miyuri' person, though," he explained. "She can't use Lucia's Chapel to scan for her, her Persona isn't strong enough to take it yet. But if she went inside with you, it might be easier for us to find that girl. You know what places rules by the Shadows tend to be like."

"That's true, but…" Hanamura sighed deeply. Though he still seemed to dislike the idea of taking Nanako along, he seemed to be opening up to it a bit. "There will be battles. Is she prepared for that? You saw her fight yesterday, Teddie. What would you say?"

"Her Persona is cut for combat. It's a Justice Arcana, just like I thought before and knows some Agi Skills. A lot of the Shadows yesterday were weak to that."

Hanamura stayed silent for a bit, eyeing Nanako. It looked like he still had second thoughts. In the end, however, he sighed and nodded.

"Alright," he said. "If you are really sure about this, you can come along. Still, I want you to know that this will be very dangerous. I'll do my best to keep you save, but I can't guarantee that nothing will happen to us. Do you understand?"

"I'm not scared," Nanako replied, giving Hanamura a determined look. "I want to go in and help you and Kumada-san."

"Well then…"

Hanamura still seemed unsure about the decision, but decided not to question it any further. He turned to the blonde man again,

"Ted, I'll take a look at your scan results. Go get the stuff for her."

"Roger!" Kumada nodded and got on his feed, heading off for another part of the room. Meanwhile, Hanamura made his way to the computer connected to Lucia's Chapel. Just like the rest of the room, files and notes were scattered all over this desk as well. Nanako wondered what all those thing were, what they were for and how Hanamura and Kumada could even work with them in the chaos they had created, but when she saw how concentrated Hanamura was typing and clicking on the PC, trying to unravel whatever data the machine had been fed by Kumada, she decided to be silent and watch. There would be enough time to ask questions later. For now, they had to save Miyuri.

* * *

_A/N: _

_I'd like to thank you all for the reviews and follows and favorites! I was surprised at how suddenly they skyrocketed and, frankly, really, really happy! I feel a bit more confident about this story now._

_This chapter is mostly an exposition dump, I hope it's not too much at once. I'd have had a hard time fitting that stuff in elsewhere..._

_Before anyone asks why the Narration refers to Yosuke and Teddie by last name, it's because the narration is more connected to Nanako's perspective and, as adults, she sees it fit to refer to them by their last names. What's up with Teddie's introduction with a human name and as related to Yosuke, well... That's an issue for later. _


	6. April 4th -Evening: The Sparrow's Inn

**April 4th**** 2021****  
**(Aries)

**Sunday**

**Evening**

Two and a half hour later, Nanako found herself fitted with a small, head-set like device that had a big "SCD-9" engraved on it, and a Bamboo Sword, much stronger than the Bokken she had equipped when Miyuri and her were attacked the day before.

"You dropped the weapon you had on you last time around when I brought you out," Kumada explained. "I couldn't save it, I'm sorry. I hope this will do."

Nanako tried not to frown at the thought that she'd not be able to return the "borrowed" Martial Arts equipment to the clubs anytime soon, but instead smiled and nodded at Kumada, in order to tell him that it was fine. She demonstratively swung the Bamboo Sword once. It sat surprisingly well in her hand…

"Don't be too confident." Hanamura warned her. "This isn't going to be a game and it definitely won't be easy. You'll have to be on constant guard."

Nanako stopped swinging the sword and looked at the young man.

"I know that," she claimed.

"I hope so," Hanamura replied. "Alright, now, before we go… Here."

He retrieved an object from his pockets and put it into Nanako's hands.

"Put that on, please. I set it to your headset's frequency, so it should work."

Nanako examined the thing she had received for a short while in curiosity. It was a watch. A green digital wrist-watch with a simple design, to be exact. Another small "SCD-9" was engraved on the side. The display was unusually big, though. Nanako soon realized why that was. When she tried putting the watch on her wrist, the moment she had fastened the wristband, the display turned on. Right above where the time was shown, a number in roman numerals promptly appeared. "_VIII_" it read. Meanwhile, the bottom of the screen showed 2,3 other numbers, apparently parameters of some sort.

"What is this for?" she asked.

"You're gonna need it when we're in that space," Hanamura explained. "It's our only spare, so you'd better not lose it, OK?"

Meanwhile, Kumada seemed a bit troubled when he took a closer look at the watch on Nanako's wrist. He turned to his brother. "Yosuke, isn't that…?"

"I know. But it was the only one we had," Hanamura sighed.

"Oh…"

The topic seemed to come to an end with this and Nanako, not feeling like she really needed to know what was so troubling about the watch she received, albeit she had to admit she was curious, just examined it for a bit longer, trying to figure out what the numbers on it really meant, as Hanamura once more turned to her with an urgent expression.

"Anyway, it's just about time we head off. We need to be there in time, or there'll be no way to enter the Sealed Space. Teddie?"

Kumada nodded, "Ready. I connected Nana-chan's equipment to the system. I'll enter the Chapel as soon as the two of you leave."

"Good. We're counting on you in there."

"I'll do my best."

Hanamura accepted this with full trust. He turned his attention to Nanako once more,

"And you? Anything you still want to take care off before we go? Remember, once we enter, we can't leave until we fulfilled our objective, otherwise we won't be able to get back in again."

"I'm ready," Nanako said in a determined voice, looking straight at Hanamura.

And that, too, was accepted by him, "Alright. Then we're going."

"Good Luck!" Kumada wished them. "If anything happens, just yell. I'm always ready to pull you out, but I need a sign."

"I'll alarm you if needed, thanks. Let's all do our best."

With that, Hanamura took Nanako along and they parted from Kumada. Nanako saw the blonde man reenter the pod-like "Lucia's Chapel" just as she left through the door. It was 6:00pm now… 18 more minutes until they would be able to enter this eerie place again. 18 more minutes until their chance to save Miyuri… Nanako held tight to her Bokken. She couldn't back out now. She wouldn't. She had to do this.

* * *

It was silent between Hanamura and Nanako all the way as they rode down to the shrine in his car. And then, they stood by the steps of the shrine. And they waited.

"This was where you and your friend ended up in the Sealed Space?" Hanamura finally asked Nanako.

She nodded, "The world suddenly turned grey. And then… those monsters came."

"Yeah… It was probably quite a shock. Most people don't react well to getting dragged in there," Hanamura agreed. He took a glance at the watch on his wrist; a model that didn't look unlike the one he had given Nanako, except in that it was orange in color. "…It's just about time. Any second now, it will happen."

It was a calm evening, the sun was very low on the horizon and there was only a faint breeze. Nanako starred at the shrine, waiting for time to pass, as her tension rose and her hand tightened more and more around the Bamboo Sword's handle.

Then, all too sudden, the breeze had stopped. The sun's red light vanished and it's warmth with it. The color was drained from everything in an instant and icy cold filled the air and everything it touched. The sky had disappeared once more. Nanako felt sick.

No doubt. They were in the 'Sealed Space' again.

* * *

"Just on cue. Like we thought."

Hanamura stretched a bit, as if to loosen his muscles. He seemed tense, but in a professional way, not actually nervous. Nanako was still trying to get her stomach to stop rebelling against the sudden skip in reality when she watched him checking the display of his watch once more, fiddle with the two buttons on it a bit, then touch something close to his ear. He was apparently pushing a button on his headset,

"Teddie, we're in. How about you? Can you hear me?"

Before long, Nanako could hear a familiar voice echo in her ear in an odd way. She was hearing it through her headset and she was sure Hanamura was hearing the same transmission.

_"I can hear you loud and clear, Yosuke. I'm linked in and there are no interferences. I can give full backup!" _

Hanamura nodded, as Nanako still wondered if Kumada would be able to see this, "Awesome. Everything's going smoothly so far then."

"Umm…Excuse me. How is he able to hear you?" Nanako finally voiced her curiosity. "I thought time didn't 'flow' right here…?"

Apparently, Kumada could hear her as well.

_"I synched up with this place the moment the two of you entered. That's what the transmitters in your watches are for,"_ he responded immediately. _"With that, I'm linked to your Personas and can keep an eye on you and what you're doing. So… my body's still in the 'real' world, but, in way, it's like my mind is over there with you guys."_

"Ah? You can do that…?" Nanako couldn't help but feel amazed. Instinctively, she looked around, as if to search if Kumada wasn't actually standing somewhere close to them. He really was nowhere to be seen…

Kumada replied to her question, _"For people whose Personas can't create Escape Routes like mine can, it's the only way to explore these Spaces without risking getting trapped inside. It puts some strain on my Persona, but I can manage."_

"That's the power of 'Lucia's Chapel'," Hanamura explained. "Of course, not everyone can take it as far as Teddie. I can use the Chapel to scan areas quite well, but if I tried to synchronize with others in a Sealed Space like this, I'd really have to hold back with how much power I use, or I'd risk overloading my Persona…"

"Overloading?" Nanako asked interested. Hanamura just laughed uncomfortably in response,

"Hah… Just trust me, you don't wanna know what that feels like. Really."

_"Yosuke was sick for a week the first time he used the Chapel. Because he tried to show off."_ There was something gleeful in Kumada's voice from over the headset. _"He couldn't think straight for days and would blurt out everything that came to his mind. It was hilarious."_

"Y-You, just shut up!" Hanamura was hammering the button on his headset, seeming quite upset. "Focus on scanning, not gossiping! If we run into any Shadows and are taken by surprise because we couldn't see them in advance, I'm blaming you!"

_"…Alright, alright." _Nanako could hear Kumada sighing.

Hanamura let the argument subside with this. Taking a deep breath, he calmed down and turned to Nanako once more, "In any case, let's begin the search for your friend. Are you OK with leading the way, Nanako-san?"

"Huh?" Nanako was surprised by this proposal. "Lead… the way? But why me?"

"You know Miyuri Fujishima better than Teddie or I do," he explained. "Places where Shadows roam are always ruled by human thought and emotion…Feelings. If your friend was really trapped here, chances are she has influenced this place in some way."

_"You need to stay on the look-out for traces that might lead to her, Nana-chan!"_ Nanako heard Kumada suggest. _"Like things she likes or that are special to her somehow. If you can find something like that, you can find her too, I'm sure!"_

"Umm… I don't know. I've not known her for that long yet…" Nanako couldn't help but sound nervous.

"Just keep an eye on everything that seems like suspicious," Hanamura suggested. "I'm sure, we'll come across something that catches your eye sooner or later."

"Well… Alright then…"

Nanako was still unsure about this whole 'leading' thing, but if all she had to do was look out for things that seemed Miyuri-like, then she supposed it could work.

_"I'll keep track of where you've been already and create a map of the area from it!" _Kumada chimed in._ "Just ask if you wanna check that, I'll send you an image to the watches!"_

"Alright. Thanks, Ted!"

With that, the pair headed off, out deeper into this so-called Sealed Space. Just like the day before, navigation was confusing. Many places looked exactly the same and everything once more looked like an experiment with a videogame level editor gone awry. In fact, the further Nanako and Hanamura proceeded into the area, the more and more bizarre the architecture turned, slowly making Nanako feel like she was turning dizzy. Misplaced staircases and fences drew lines through the sceneries, along with streets built in strange angles… The eerie silence only contributed to the unsettling feeling this place gave her.

They hadn't been walking for too long, when Kumada's voice rang out in their headsets in an alarming way,

_"Ah! Guys, watch out!" _

Aware, Hanamura quickly touched the button on his headset and spoke, "Shadows?"

_"Yeah! And a whole bunch too! They're coming your direction… I think they noticed you!"_

Immediately, Hanamura started looking around the area carefully, "No surprise, we've been here for a bit… Where are they coming from, Teddie?"

_"Two directions…They're drawing closer…I don't think you'll be able to evade them. You gotta prepare for combat!"_

"Alright, got it!" With a quick move of his hands, Hanamura unzipped the two pouches he carried on a belt with him and pulled from them two polished, shining knives. "Nanako-san, get ready!"

"A-Ah! Alright…!" Nanako tightened her grip on her Bamboo Sword's hilt.

It was like on cue, as barely had Hanamura prepared, already they were appearing from around the street corners, approaching at a steady pace. Black, undefinable creatures, shifting into different shapes as they approached… Just the same as the day before. Shadows. Nanako shuddered at the sight, but remained in her stance, ready to strike if necessary. Though, this possible necessity was soon called into question. Because as soon as the Shadows crossed a certain distance towards them... Hanamura began to smirk confidently.

"Alright…" There wasn't a hint of fear in the young man's expression, when Nanako watched him in his posture. All muscles in his body seemed to be tensed. And then, all too sudden, he kicked off the soil. "_Here we go!_"

With a quick leap, Hanamura threw himself right at the enemies with his knives and began to slash away at them swiftly. His moves as he tore his knives through the enemies were so coordinated and inhumanly fast, Nanako barely even saw what was happening. Her mouth gaped opened a bit as she watched him. Shadow for Shadow, Nanako observed the effects of Hanamura's slashes and stabs as the Monsters went down and dissolved into blackness. There was no need for her to even defend herself; none of them even made it anywhere close to Nanako before Hanamura could take them down. With little trouble, he was mowing them down like a one man army.

"W-Wow…! That speed…!"

_"That's his Persona's ability,_" Kumada's voice explained to Nanako. "_When you fight, your Persona enhances your natural physical abilities. For Yosuke, that's especially speed._"

"And it makes him that fast!?" Nanako couldn't trust her eyes.

_"There's a lot of training to it too...Ah, Nana-chan, behind you!"_

Kumada's warning got Nanako alarmed just in time to react to an incoming Shadow attack to the back, she brought her Sword before her body and fended it off. As soon as she felt the Adrenalin of the battle rush through her body, it happened again. She felt herself call out words without meaning to.

"P…PERSONA!"

In a blue, glowing mist Nanako's Persona, Shirayama-hime, appeared in all her red, silken glory and proceeded to incinerate the enemies before her. They went down rather quickly. Nanako got space to breathe, but for just a few moments. Then, the next wave of enemies, this time from the opposite direction as the first, came at them. Nanako tried to focus on her Persona.

"Maragi!" she called and flames began to engulf the enemies before her. Must to her chagrin, though, they didn't show much of a reaction to that. Nanako frowned.

_"Uh Oh… These enemies are immune to fire!"_ Kumada realized. _"Don't waste anymore Agi-Skills on them."_

"A-Alright…!" Nanako nodded, turning a little nervous. No fire, huh? This was all the magic her Persona had. So if she couldn't use anymore Magic, all that remained… was to attack physically. Realizing this, Nanako readied her sword again and began to slash at all incoming enemies. Unfortunately, no matter how simple Hanamura made it look, these enemies didn't give in all that easily. Nanako found that she had a hard time tacking down even one of the Shadows with her Sword alone. And as they started to surround her, she felt fear creeping up within. She didn't remain in this uncomfortable position, though. Just as she realized that she wouldn't be able to dodge the next Shadow's attack directed at her, a blur of black and grey appeared before her, soon manifesting as Hanamura. Lightning-quick, he had thrown himself in the way and blocked off the Shadow's claws with his knives.

"No, you _don't_!" he called out, as he tore his left knife in a half-circle before his body, catapulting about three enemies away and gaining himself and Nanako some time to reposition themselves.

"Nanako-san, are you alright?"

Nanako nodded slightly, just glad Hanamura had come so quickly. She didn't want to imagine what would have happened had she been by herself. It was then, that Kumada's voice made another announcement,

_"Yosuke! These Shadows have a weakness to Garu-Skill! You know what to do."_

"…Ha Ha. Perfect," a grin appeared on Hanamura's face. He got into stance again. As Nanako was still in the process of realizing what was happening, the familiar, blue mist had begun to appear around him. Something that looked like a card floated before Hanamura's body.

"Our turn! _Susanoo-no-Mikoto_!"

A quick slash of his knives and the card before Hanamura was smashed, unleashing a burst of power. Out of the blue glow emitted by the young man, a tall figure with unruly hair like fire, clad in neon-colored robes, appeared. Nanako looked on in awe. So this was the Persona that granted Hanamura his abilities? Just like Kumada's, it had something imposing to it. Much stronger than Nanako's own.

With a move of his hand, Susanoo-no-Mikoto sent a strong gust of wind all across the plaza they were fighting on, throwing all the remaining Shadows off-balance at once. Only few of them survived the storm. At the end of it, only a handful was still standing.

"Alright, this is our chance!" Hanamura turned his attention to Nanako. "Are you ready? Let's throw all we have at them and take them down!"

Nanako nodded, "OK!"

On Hanamura's command, they stormed out together, attacking all out with all their might. The defenseless Shadows had no chance to escape. It didn't take much until they, one after another, shared their late comrades' fate of melting away and fading. Before long, the plaza returned to silence. Hanamura and Nanako were, once more, alone in the cold, windless streets of the Sealed Space.

_"All enemies eliminated!"_ Kumada sounded satisfied. _"There shouldn't be any more close by. Good work, Yosuke. And a special thanks for your guest star, the amazing Nana-chan!"_

Kumada's sounded notably more ecstatic when praising Nanako. She blushed. "I didn't do much…"

"Well, for your second battle, it wasn't bad at all!" Hanamura put his hand on her shoulder. "These Shadows would have probably been a bit much for a beginner alone, though, so it was good I was around. Still, you do pack quite a punch!"

Hearing this, Nanako felt somewhat proud. She smiled at Hanamura to show her appreciation of his and Kumada's praise. He smiled right back.

"Alright, now that we got the small fish out of the way… We should keep looking around. Let's move on, Nanako-san."

Nanako nodded and proceeded to begin leading their small party on again. A won battle behind them, she felt a whole lot more confident already. She took a few steps into a direction they hadn't mapped out yet – It was one of the two directions the Shadows had attempted to assault them from – only to quickly stop in her tracks, when a strange feeling struck. For some reason she couldn't explain, she just suddenly sensed that something seemed… off. Hanamura quickly took notice of how Nanako started to examine the surrounding area turning her head into all possible directions.

"Hm, what is it, Nanako-san?" he asked. "Did you find something?"

Nanako didn't respond immediately. Her eyes were wandering from one side of the street to the other – there. Finally, she had spotted what she believed to be what had put her off. She quickly walked over to the spot that had attracted her attention – a patch of greenery. Or rather, it would have been greenery if there had been any color remained in this lifeless, frozen space. Hanamura followed her. Nanako approached the plants carefully, bending down to them. The patch of grass was only the beginning of a narrow path that seemed to lead to a small grove of sorts. Leading her fingers down to the ground, Nanako carefully touched one of the few flowers growing there.

"Huh… Those are white lilies," Hanamura realized as he watched what the girl was doing. "That's a bit odd. Do those usually grow here?"

Nanako didn't respond. She hadn't lived here for long enough to tell and, yet, something still seemed weird about those flowers to her. Only when she took her hand away, she realized what it was.

"Wait. They're swaying." Nanako said surprised. "There's no wind. How are they moving?"

"What?" Hanamura's attention was caught. He looked closer. "…Hey, you're right! This _is_ strange. Time is supposed to be frozen in Sealed Space…"

_"Hm… Flowers? Wind?"_ Kumada's voice decided to comment. He sounded amused. _"Yosuke, Yosuke, what did you do again?"_

Hanamura groaned, "Nothing at all. Like I'd waste my spells on moving a few lilies around."

"_But, but!"_ Kumada seemed desperate to make a point. _"If it's flowers, then it has to be Yosuke _'Hana'_mura! You know, because 'Hana' means flo-!"_

"-Aaaaand the moment you have to explain a joke is the moment you should realize it isn't funny," the older brother cut the younger's rant off. "We have been over that before, remember?"

_"Yeah, yeah. Hmpf,"_ an offended scoff came from Kumada's side. _"Excuse me for trying to lighten the mood."_

Nanako kept examining the lilies. The voices of her companions in the background seemed to jog something in her mind. Something about names… Right, 'swaying lilies'… '_yureru yuri_'. 'Yuri' meant 'Lily' and the character for 'Swaying'… she had seen that character somewhere recently-

-The realization struck.

"Miyuri-san's name… the symbol for 'swaying' is in it." Nanako thought hard to make sure she wasn't making a mistake. "I saw it on the announcement board. I'm sure about it."

At once, Hanamura and Kumada ceased ranting at each other. Hanamura seemed thoughtful,

"Her name? Oh, right… 'Miyuri'… That sounds a bit like the word for 'Lily'."

_"Beautiful lily!"_ Kumada added, as if to make a correction. His comment remained ignored by the two others, though.

"Swaying lilies…" Hanamura's eyes were turned to narrow path to the small grove now. "And we are searching for someone named "Miyuri"… spelt with "swaying"…"

"Do you think that Miyuri-san is doing this?" a rather excited Nanako turned to Hanamura and asked. "I mean, you said earlier that her emotions could be doing things to this place… right? Then, maybe she's trying to lead us to her!"

Nanako's eyes were sparkling with hope. She just wanted this hunch to be correct. Hanamura seemed a little skeptical, however, tilting his head from one side to the other.

"I don't know. It's weirdly specific… Your friend is a normal person. How could she possibly know how to manipulate this place to this extent? And why would she use such an odd method to call for help? This itches me all the wrong ways," he sighed. "I gotta be honest with you, Nanako-san… If some attorney was arguing for their point with _that_ in court, I'd just laugh them down. "

"We wouldn't go to court with this, though," Nanako replied. One could read from her face that she was a bit irritated by Hanamura's comment. "This whole story would be laughed down there anyway, wouldn't it?"

_"You know, she has a point,"_ Kumada agreed and had he been physically present, he'd probably have nodded in a knowing way.

Hanamura sighed, "Alright… Then we'll just give our magic flowers the benefit of doubt for now and follow them. But let's keep our guard up, alright?"

A nod from Nanako. She knew well enough that getting careless now would probably be a bad idea. Carrying her Bamboo Sword close to her body, she searched out the lilies' path with her eyes and proceeded to follow it with dedication. As expected, they soon ended up entering the grove…

"Hm… the layout here seems less chaotic than in other areas," Hanamura remarked after a while. Somehow, he appeared to be unsettled. He touched the button on his headset. "Ted, anything you got to say about this?"

_"I don't know…"_ Kumada could be heard responding. _"The air's definitely different somehow, but I can't pinpoint it. No Shadows close by, though."_

"Alright… keep your eyes open."

As Hanamura returned to focusing on where they were going, Nanako was still trailing after the line of swaying lilies, which continued further and further through the time-stopped trees. The occasional patch of grass crunched with an unnatural sound when they happened to step on it. The usual sweet scents of nature were completely missing. All Nanako could smell and taste in this air was the same strangely metallic flavor as the day before. She silently wondered how Kumada could claim he could "sniff out" anything in a place like this. Then again, maybe it was simply as Hanamura had said and she just lacked that special talent? As Nanako was still contemplating over such things , a cold chill overcame her out of nowhere. She stopped walking.

"Nanako-san?" Hanamura asked once more, as Nanako skimmed the area. Just now, she could swear she had heard something. The sound had been faint, but she could still make it out. The girl took a few more steps forward.

_"Who comes there…?"_

Looking up, Nanako felt how her steps sped up. A voice.

_"Who comes there, to the Sparrow's Inn?"_

"Miyuri-san…!" Nanako leapt forwards. She began to call out into the grove. "Miyuri-san! Where are you?!"

_"…Nana-chan, that voice!"_ Kumada addressed her through her headset. _"Are you sure that that's your friend's voice…?"_

Nanako put her finger on the button on the headset, "I am! It's her, definitely!"

_"But… that voice is…"_ Less than enthusiastic, Kumada failed to finish the sentence.

Hanamura was closely behind Nanako, "Ted, what's wrong? Can you tell us where that voice is coming from?"

Before they could receive any answer whatsoever, the echoing voice of Miyuri Fujishima interrupted them again, once more sounding out.

_"Who comes there, to the Sparrow's Inn? Friend or Fiend? Did you come for song or gold? _

_"Come here, enjoy dance and song… Your hostess is the Tongue-Cut Sparrow. Come to the Tongue-Cut Sparrow's grove. _

_"Come here, to the Sparrow's Inn."_

"Miyuri-san!" Nanako called out again. "Miyuri-san, it's me, Nanako! Where are you?!"

Nanako's steps turned quicker and quicker and soon she was skipping in-between. She had started running. The scene around her had begun to change; the trees grew sparse and sparser and were replaced by woods of bamboo more and more as she progressed.

_"Nanako…?"_

She heard the voice respond.

_"Nana… Nana, you came for me."_

Nanako flinched. It was Miyuri's voice, no doubt about it, but something was not right. The tone, the way she said the name, the style of speech, it all just sounded off. What was going on? From behind her back, Nanako could hear Hanamura call out,

"Nanako-san, stop running! You don't know what's up ahead!"

_"Guys… I have a very bad feeling, guys! You're approaching something big!" _She could hear Kumada warn over her headset. _"Nana-chan, slow down, please!"_

She was trying to go slower, as she understood why the young men demanded this from her and she knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to just rush in further into what potentially could be an enemy's lair. Still, having heard Miyuri's voice in such a strange manner had made it hard for her to control herself. She was afraid. Whatever was going on with the other girl, it couldn't be anything good.

_"Nana, you came for me. I am so happy, Nana. You are a good friend, Nana. A really good person. Such a good person…"_

"This is… familiar," Hanamura's voice was shaking a little. "Damn, don't tell me… could it be? Teddie!"

_"Something seems different, but… You're right, it's still just way too similar! Yosuke, Nana-chan, be careful!"_

'Careful'. As if she hadn't understood by now that they were probably heading right into the lion's den. But what could she do? This way was the only way they could go. Their only lead towards Miyuri. Slowing down wouldn't change what lies ahead, right? Nanako felt scared, but much more than that, she felt urgency. She wanted to get out of here and she wanted to do so together with Miyuri. Just fetch her as quickly as possible and make a break for it. Kumada-san could pull them out at any time, so it should work, right? And the sooner they found Miyuri, the sooner they could get out. She just had to find her quickly. Regardless of how unsettling this all was.

_"You found me, now come here, good person, you shall be blessed._

_"Come and enjoy dance and song._

_"Come to the Sparrow's Inn, where the Tongue-Cut Sparrow dwells."_

She kept walking. The bamboo grew less dense. A clearing was coming up. The cold air seemed to grow even colder. And then, finally, they were there. Right behind all the bamboo, at the end of the trail of lilies, they found a clearing. Nanako stepped out into it, calling her acquaintance's name one more time.

"Miyuri-san!"

The clearing was just as cold and colorless as the remaining area, yet, something was different here. It was the aura of the place. The empty sky above them carried a strange, unnatural light that bore vague resemblance with an aurora. Flowers and bamboo were standing in clear lines, left and right from the paths, all of which led to the center of the clearing. And right there, in said center of the clearing, stood a tree, on which, back turned to the newcomers, a girl sat. She let her legs dangle down from a branch, rocking them back and forth. Her hair seemed to sway in the same manner as the surrounding lilies, despite the fact that there still was not even a hint of a breeze anywhere close.

Nanako found herself running right down the path to the tree.

"Miyuri-san! Are you OK?" An uncomfortable feeling was welling up in Nanako's stomach at the scene. But, for now, Miyuri's safety had priority. "Please, say something!"

The silence that followed was short. Only moments later, the girl stopped moving her legs and turned her head a bit. Smiling at Nanako, Miyuri spoke,

"Nana… Nana, you searched me? And you found me. I'm surprised… And I'm happy."

"Miyuri-san…" Nanako was a bit speechless. She looked around, searching for something to use as a ladder. Miyuri was pretty high up. "Can you come down? You're not hurt, are you?"

Miyuri chuckled, but never responded to the question. Nanako's pleading eyes remained in her back, until, all too sudden, the black haired girl turned around. Then, with a short leap, she just jumped down from the branch she had been sitting on. Sailing down from about 3 meters of altitude in an unnaturally slow manner, she softly landed on her two feet, just a few meters in front of Nanako, who immediately backed off in surprise.

"How… did you…?"

"Nana… you came for me…" Miyuri spoke on, a strange sweetness in her voice. "Does that mean…You want to endure me a little bit longer? That is so nice…"

Nanako raised her head,

"E-Endure you…?"

* * *

_A/N:_

_By the time he reaches age 26, Yosuke has a right to be badass, so I made him badass. That's all. _

_Miyuri's name is written 珠揺__, the symbols of which mean "Gem" and "Swaying". An alternate way of writing "Miyuri" would be "美百合__", which means "Beautyful Lily". Her last name is supossed to be written as "富士島__". So much for that. _

_To clear up that confusion, due to Teddie knowing the Traesto-spell, he technically can enter a Sealed Space on his own. It's just that if he happens to run into something that doesn't even give him the time to cast the spell before it flattens him, he's pretty much screwed without outside support. Basically, having someone with escape-spells in outside support is always the safer bet when dealing with Sealed Spaces_


End file.
